White House Press Secretary Jay Carney had a really bad terrible awful day. The day after Eric Holder had to admit he was wrong in claiming that Attorney General Murkasey was briefed about gun walking with regard to Operation Wide Receiver, Carney repeated the accusation. Nice!
He tried to claim that the Bush administration started this mess and Holder was the one who stopped it. This is laughably false. I know this is hard to imagine, but I honestly don’t think Carney knew that Holder had already admitted that his accusation against Murkasey was false. I think Carney was sent out there with little or no preparation and he walked into a buzz saw. If that is true, he has to be furious. Following is a transcript of the news conference:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/fast-and-furious-todays-qs-for-os-wh/
Notice how Carney tried desperately to drown out questions by repeating Democratic talking points. But Jake Tapper, from ABC News, asked very direct questions. He asked whether any of the documents being blocked by executive privilege, are to or from individuals in the White House or are they all internal DOJ documents.
Tapper understands that the Obama administration has a serious problem. If those documents are not to and from individuals in the White House, then executive privilege cannot possibly apply. If they are, then this is an admission that the White House, contrary to public comments by Obama, was in the loop. Fast and Furious now directly involves the President of the United States. The minute Obama claimed executive privilege he implicated himself in this sordid affair. Remember that even if Obama was not involved in the actual operation, if he was involved in the cover-up he is in big trouble. Richard Nixon was forced out of office for doing exactly that.
Tapper also pointed out that Operation Fast and Furious began in 2009, when Obama was President. Carney claimed that this started under the Bush administration, but Tapper knows that is not true. In addition, Holder has already admitted that this is not true. The blame everything on Bush strategy has officially run out of steam.
As soon as he got a chance to get a word in edgewise, Tapper pressed Carney again on whether or not any of the documents are to or from anyone in the White House. He was not deterred by the Democratic talking points.
Then Tapper got Carney to admit that the DOJ wrote a letter to congress that said something that was not true. He asked why there was not a legitimate investigation and oversight responsibility to find out who at the DOJ knew they were giving false information.
This story has serious legs. In a very short period of time you are going to hear more and more people say: “What did the President know and when did he know it? The Obama administration has gone from panic to fop sweat. The more you hear people describe this as a witch hunt or a racist political fishing expedition the more you know that Issa and company are getting close to the target.
Democrats are screaming at the top of their lungs because they are desperate to drown out Issa. But Issa is playing this brilliantly. He has made no outrageous claims he has just stayed focused on what is clearly reasonable. He just keeps asking for documents. That makes him a very dangerous opponent for this administration.
In addition, Senator Grassley has figured out something important. He knows that Obama never provides documents about anything. So he waited until Holder made a blatantly false accusation and he pounced. When Holder falsely claimed that Murkasey was briefed on this, Grassley demanded either proof or an apology. The DOJ had to admit they have no evidence and they tried to spin this as an inadvertent error. No one will buy that nonsense. This is a brilliant tactic to use against Obama. He has stonewalled everybody since the beginning on just about every subject. Grassley just found a way to make him put up or shut up.
I suspect that both Issa and Murkasey have copies of original documents. This creates a huge problem for Holder. If he does not produce the documents he has a problem. If he produces false documents, he has a problem. The only thing we know for sure is that he has deliberately lied to congress on at least two occasions.
Richard Nixon was removed from office because he covered up Watergate. Ultimately, the cover-up was far more serious than the original. This sure looks a lot like history repeating itself.
The sharks are on the hunt and there’s blood in the water. It is time to watch for the inevitable feeding frenzy.
TDM