Free Republic

WH Comms Dir @pfeiffer44 slams Oversight Cmte for pursuing "a politically-motivated, taxpayer-funded election-year fishing expedition."In written statement, @pfeiffer44 says House GOP should work with Presd Obama "to create more jobs, not more political theater.”

Years as an avid, hands on “facilitator” for corrupt Democrat presidents have taught Attorney General Eric Holder that contempt and cynicism are the best weapons against annoying Republicans in search of facts. In yesterday’s eagerly anticipated meeting with Darrell Issa, Holder did exactly what anyone familiar with the arrogant racketeer might expect. He ignored vows he made to the Republican Congressman about bringing the matter of Fast and Furious to “an amicable resolution” by demanding today’s scheduled House contempt of congress vote be cancelled before any of his Department’s subpoenaed Fast and Furious documents would be handed over to the...

House Republicans are broadening their probe of the Department of Energy’s largest solar-loan guarantee. Rep. Darrell Issa, the California Republican who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent letters to the White House and BrightSource Energy Inc., the loan-guarantee recipient, asking for e-mails and other documents related to the $1.6 billion deal. The Wall Street Journal viewed copies of the letters, which are dated June 7. SNIP Mr. Issa’s committee in March asked BrightSource and other loan guarantee recipients for communications with the Department of Energy prior to key announcement related to the deals. The June 7 letter...

Wiretap applications obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform prove Attorney General Eric Holder and Assistant AG Lanny Breuer lied to Committee members when they claimed DOJ personnel knew nothing of the tactics used by the ATF during Operation Fast And Furious. Wiretap applications are forms which must be filled out and submitted to a judge, asking permission to perform a wiretap. As these requests may only be made if all other information gathering techniques have been tried and found wanting, the applications are completed in extraordinary detail, listing all prior methods employed by law enforcement to...

Capitol Hill- It was another tense hearing for Attorney General Eric Holder on Capitol Hill where he testified before the House Judiciary Committee about Justice Department Oversight today. Holder was asked about and covered a variety of topics, but his personal role and those of his senior Justice Department officials in the lethal Fast and Furious operation were front and center. Chairman Lamar Smith opened his remarks with Fast and Furious, saying the Department of Justice has not provided enough information about the operation that has left hundreds dead in Mexico and at least one U.S. federal agent, Brian...

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa has drafted a 48-page contempt of Congress citation for Attorney General Eric Holder over Operation Fast and Furious. It now appears Issa is currently moving forward without the support of House Speaker John Boehner. Holder’s Department of Justice has provided only about 7,000 pages worth of the more than 70,000 pages of documents Issa has subpoenaed related to Operation Fast and Furious. Issa and many others on Capitol Hill have threatened for months that they’ll hold Holder in contempt without actually doing it. This 48-page contempt citation is the first official step in...

"Botched." That is the word the mainstream media too often associates with the federal gunwalking scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious—but in her new book, Fast and Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up, investigative reporter Katie Pavlich fearlessly chronicles exactly why the only thing "botched" about the ill-fated operation was the Obama administration's shoddy attempt to cover their tracks. Having shared office space with Katie for well over a year now, I've witnessed her ferocious commitment to this story since before Fast and Furious was even a thought in the national consciousness. I wasn't always quite...

When Eric Holder testified last December before the House Judiciary Committee about the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal, he proclaimed in his opening statement that the Justice Department had been "fully cooperative and responsive in its dealing with Congress." But later during the hearing, Florida Congresswoman Sandy Adams asked Holder about his communications with his top aides concerning Fast and Furious. "Did you at any time -- at any time -- e-mail on your personal account with Larry Breuer -- Lanny Breuer and Gary Grindler in regards to Fast and Furious ever?" asked Adams. Holder: Ever? Adams: Yes... Holder: I...

During the past week a number of Operation Fast and Furious watchers have been celebrating the notion that Congressman Darrell Issa’s February 14th letter to Eric Holder represents a last chance, comply or else, final offer to the gangster Attorney General. (1) Unfortunately, buying into such wishful thinking will result in nothing but disappointment as the Congressman has shown little in his dealings with the Attorney General over the past 6 months but a litany of empty threats and predictable retreats when they are ignored. During his December 8th testimony before Issa’s House Government Reform Committee, Holder stated emphatically that...

As a result of his refusal to honor House committee subpoenas demanding the release of some 70 thousand Fast and Furious-related documents currently withheld by the Department of Justice, Eric Holder faces the very real possibility of arrest and imprisonment by the House of Representatives. “Your actions lead us to conclude that the [Justice] Department is actively engaged in a cover-up,” wrote House Government Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa to Attorney General Holder just two days before his February 2nd testimony before the Committee. (1) Stating what interested Americans have known for a year or more, Issa speaks of the...

Thanks to Sipsey Street, and then the Daily Caller, evidence is mounting that John Boehner may be surreptitiously putting the Kibosh on Darrell Issa's Fast and Furious investigation. The vast majority of today's show - available for MP3 download or stream - dealt with this subject. http://www.benbarrack.com/show_archives.asp

It’s easy to tell when Attorney General Eric Holder is about to take part in another bout of prevarication before a congressional committee. Just look for a Friday night, White House sponsored, Department of Justice document dump. This time the White House oversaw the release of some 500 redacted emails and other assorted tid-bits, designed as usual to lead House and Senate investigators precisely where the Obama Regime wants them to go in their investigation of the “gunwalking” Operation Fast and Furious. And one of those emails makes it clear that Eric Holder’s DOJ aide, Monty Wilkinson received news of...

Congressional support for controversial online piracy legislation eroded dramatically on Wednesday in the face of an unprecedented online protest supported by tech titans such as Google, Wikipedia and Facebook. Several key senators withdrew their support from the Senate's Protect IP Act (PIPA), including Tea Party favorite Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), an elected member of his party's leadership. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who leads the Senate GOP's campaign team, said the legislation should be put on hold, while Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a sponsor and the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, retreated from the...

In a move the technology sector will surely see as a victory, a controversial antipiracy bill being debated in Congress will no longer include a provision that would require ISPs to block access to overseas Web sites accused of piracy. Rep. Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), one of the biggest backers of the Stop Online Piracy Act, today said he plans to remove the Domain Name System or DNS-blocking provision. "After consultation with industry groups across the country," Smith said in a statement released by his office, "I feel we should remove DNS-blocking from the Stop Online Piracy Act so that...

If you’ve ever watched a beagle track down a rabbit or a bloodhound track down an convect, you might get a glimpse into the workings of Rep Darrell Issa, a Republican from California. Issa is the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. This basically means that he heads the main investigative body used to delve into the Obama administration and their dealings. Because of his bulldog tenacity of not letting go until the job is done, many on Capitol Hill refer to Issa as Mr Subpoena. In an interview given over the weekend, Issa said, “If...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional investigators said Monday that four House members received VIP discounted loans from the former Countrywide Financial Corp., the lender whose subprime mortgages was largely responsible for the nation's foreclosure crisis. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, declined to name the four but wrote the House Ethics Committee that it should investigate the lawmakers. Issa, in a letter dated Friday and released Monday, said there could be additional lawmakers who received discounted loans. The most favored customers of Countrywide were known as "Friends of Angelo," who were given discounts in...

During Eric Holder’s December 8th testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman Darrell Issa told the Attorney General that he faced contempt of congress charges for his continued stonewalling of document demands of House committee subpoenas and Wisconsin Republican Jim Sensenbrenner added that impeachment proceedings could be forthcoming. But with near complete liberal ownership of the American media and the increasingly supple spine of House Speaker Jim Boehner to fall back on, Holder continued to lie, distort and virtually make light of the Obama Regime initiated death toll of Operation Fast and Furious. Lying is a “state of mind” Holder...

Rep. Darrell Issa wants an explanation from the Obama administration about why Occupy protesters were allowed to put up tents in McPherson Square Park in Washington, D.C., in what he insisted was a violation of a ban on “camping” in the nation’s capital. The California Republican, who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, complained in a letter Tuesday to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that $400,000 in recent landscaping upgrades to the park had been damaged by the “illegal camping” of Occupy participants. According to a press release issued by his office, Issa asked Salazar to explain “a...

It was a very uncomfortable Thursday for Attorney General Eric Holder on Capitol Hill as he testified before the House Judiciary Committee about Operation Fast and Furious. If it wasn’t clear that Fast and Furious was implemented as a way to push more gun control measures without the consent of Congress, it’s crystal clear now. Continued stonewalling from the Justice Department had Rep. James Sensenbrenner talking about impeachment Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee Democrat John Conyers called for the enforcement of new gun control measures pushed through the Justice Department in July without the approval of Congress, requiring...

In a classic understatement, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens sent out a Facebook message this morning calling the performance of United States Representative Hank "Guam Is Tipping Over!" Johnson at yesterdays' 'Fast and Furious' hearings 'embarrassing to all Georgians'. Quoting Olens, "Rep. Hank Johnson's performance at AG Holder's hearing was embarrassing to all Georgians."