Government – Page 20 – Shall Not Be Questioned

More Testimony From Holder

He’s incredulous that the DOJ is being sued over the long gun reporting requirement. In response to Senator Feinstein:

I think that that regulation requirement is an extremely reasonable one. It has all of the features that you have described and I think significantly is totally consistent — it is exactly what we have been doing for years with regard to the sale of handguns. And the notion that somehow or other we are in litigation now, being sued try to do the very same thing that we have done with handguns for years with regard to weapons that are far more dangerous, is really beyond me.

I don’t understand how that can be opposed given the fact that this would provide ATF, other federal agencies with useful information in trying to stop the problem that has been the subject of so much discussion. Those that have been some of the harshest critics of ATF have voted against this very, very sensible regulation. The House tried – has voted to block it. And I guess over 270 members of — of the House voted against what I think as I said is a very reasonable regulation and one that is totally consistent, exactly consistent with what we’ve been doing with handguns for years. I think since the mid 80’s.

First, the real objection to this, for anyone who cares about the rule of law, is there’s just no power granted by Congress to implement this regulation. In fact, the Gun Control Act, as amended by the Firearms Owners Protection Act, specifically forbids the Attorney General from promulgating this kind of regulation. I wouldn’t care if the regulation was for handing lollipops to little children: we have laws in this country and the executive branch is bound to them. The Attorney General is not a dictator.

Secondly it seems ridiculous, when the ATF was unable to keep track of firearms that dealers were voluntarily reporting, how it’s going to help ATF to have many times the amount of data to process.

He’s in Trouble Now

Holder has been testifying before the Senate:

LEAHY: Well thank you very much and Attorney General Holder, would you please stand, raise your right hand.Â Do you swear that the testimony you’re about to give before this committee be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God.

HOLDER: I do.

We know he has trouble in this area.

On State Defense Forces

Instapundit links to this Strategy Page story on state defense forces. They are a lot more common than you might think. While the National Guard is pretty clearly what our founding fathers would have considered a “select militia,” the various SDFs are the modern equivalent of what would be considered more traditional militias. Today most SDFs aren’d armed bodies, but serve as an emergency resource.

FOP Backing Holder?

This makes me wonder what they were promised by the Administration in return for their support. Remember that a big component of FOP support for the Clinton Assault Weapons ban was because the crime bill that it was attached to contained funding to hire a hundred thousand more police officers. The FOP has been on our side more lately, but like other unions, it’s a mistake to believe their leadership can’t be bought. They certainly can be bought.

Different Organizations

John Richardson notes there’s at least one thing the ATF seems to do competently, which is handle C&R licenses. I also possess a C&R, and agree it’s a good way to enhance your collection with relatively minimal BS. You can also get pistols without going through any of the Pennsylvania paperwork (which means it ends up in the state police ~~registry~~ database). But there’s a reason for that. If you look at the top of your C&R, you will notice it says “Department of the Treasury” rather than “Department of Justice.” The same bill that established the Department of Homeland Security also split ATF in two, sending the enforcement side to Justice, and leaving the bean counting and licensing functions in Treasury. This effectively makes them two agencies, in fact if not in name. The people responsible for Fast and Furious were in DOJ.

NRA Ad on F&F

As election season approaches, we can expect to see more in this vein:

Getting holder out would be a great victory, but if Holder hangs on this will be a campaign issue if the Republicans will be willing to make it one (which so far, they have not been). Either way, NRA will hopefully have the money to run ads like this in important markets for Obama, like Pennsylvania, during the 2012 elections.

So either he fires Holder, or we use Holder as a boat anchor to drag down the entire administration’s re-election prospects. Not too concerned about how we carve this turkey, as long as Obama doesn’t get to pick the next justice on the Supreme Court. Let’s hope that Justice Ginsburg can hang in there just a little longer.

Daily Caller Calls it for Holder

Looks like they think his days are numbered, as the number of members of Congress calling for his resignation is growing quickly:

Attorney General Eric Holderâ€™s tenure in the Obama administration may be coming to an end. At least eight members of Congress have now called on Holder to resign over the growing Operation Fast and Furious scandal.

I would tend to doubt the Attorney General will go gently. The media, for the most part, hasn’t been paying much attention to the scandal. Pretty much Fox News and CBS News are the only two outfits that have covered it any depth. Holder’s resignation would be something the rest of the media would have to report, and they’d also have to report why. His resignation would be an admission of guilt as well, which makes it harder for the Administration to claim this is nothing but a partisan witch hunt.

On the other side of the coin, if Holder was the only cabinet official at fault here, his resignation could dispose of the issue for the Administration, whereas Holder continuing could drag the scandal into election season; probably something that team Obama is not going to be too keen on. So I could see it go either way, but if I had to bet, I don’t think Holder will go gently.

Clinton Testifies

Much like Big Sis Napolitano, Clinton also knows nothing.

Big Sis Grilled on Fast and Furious

She says she didn’t know anything, because it was an ATF operation, and not under her authority. Really, either way this goes it’s not good. Either they are lying, or the Obama Administration are just a big group of know-nothing, do-nothing administrators who are essentially sucking away out tax dollars for not actually overseeing anything. You almost hope they are lying.

More Proliferation of Felonies

Apparently it’s already a misdemeanor to put corn syrup or cane sugar in a bottle and call it maple syrup. Apparently that’s not enough for the Congressional Delegation from Vermont. Because we need more federal felonies or something.