No, no- I didn't refuse to acknowledge [the separation between law enforcement and Congress]. In fact, I acknowledged it quite plainly. What you are refusing to see, however, is that even the very name of the committee itself proves my point. Case closed.
Also... You keep quoting "precedent." However, I have yet to see you offer the details of that "precedent." Do you even know? Or are you simply parroting what Holder himself stated?
It's a memo dating back to the Reagan Administration and was described in the OP. Issa is not law enforcement and he cannot assume the role of law enforcement. Holder is supposed to be the one investigating this incident. IF the Inspector General comes back with evidence of wrongdoing, then you've got something, but that's a big IF, and assuming that the investigative role no longer belongs to Eric Holder but to Darryl Issa is NOT the way the GOP will win this election. Just saying.
Regardless of whether or not he "got his hands dirty," as the saying goes, the incoming AG must sign off on all major operations, or call for their halt. It is illogical to believe that he knew nothing about the details of this operation; more to the point, it is completely insane to believe he was never told about it in the first place.
Seriously?! You've never had employees do the exact opposite of what you've told them to do, or seen your coworkers do it when the boss wasn't looking? That's ridiculous, and when the boss is the Attorney General, those employees are a danger to us all. You discount the extreme likelihood that there was insubordination rather than a top-down coordinated smuggling ring organized by the AG himself - LOL! As I said, that's ridiculous, and the employees responsible are likely to be criminals who need to be prosecuted. It wouldn't be a little thing to let them get off scott-free so you can nail Holder for it. That would be cutting off your own nose to spite your face. This is a big problem, and it was OBVIOUSLY done behind Holder's back, because even Holder's subordinates weren't kept in the loop. This kind of operation would never "skip" levels and report directly to someone like 10 salary levels above the participants (that would be Holder). So Issa's insistence on "nailing" Holder for this would be even more negligent than the negligence they accuse
Holder of perpetrating in the first place, in supposedly "allowing" the gun smuggling. You have to let him clean it up, because it should be fairly obvious that it occurred several levels below him, and in another department to boot. You verify this by having the Inspector General take a look - Holder requested his own Inspector General to do so, and Congressman Mc Caul asked the Homeland Security Inspector General to do an additional investigation. So now there is nothing, except
Darryl Issa of course, to prevent Attorney General Holder from completing his investigation. Once again, not a good thing for Darryl Issa to be famous for.
Those of us who have worked with or supervised sneaky people (like those employees who didn't speak with their supervisors, or supervisors who didn't speak with the AG), can see right through this, and know what the Attorney General is up against.
