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The House voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, and House Democrats staged a walk out during the vote.

By Sari Horwitz

Posted: July 2nd, 2012

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. sharply criticized lawmakers Monday for voting to hold him in contempt of Congress last week, saying Republicans have made him a “proxy” to attack President Obama in an election year.

In his first interview since Thursday’s vote, Holder said lawmakers have used an investigation of a botched gun-tracking operation as a way to seek retribution against the Justice Department for its policies on a host of issues, including immigration, voting rights and gay marriage. He said the chairman of the committee leading the inquiry, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), is engaging in political theater as the Justice Department tries to focus on public safety.

Read More: WashingtonPost.com

By Craig Andresen on June 20, 2012 at 5:08 am

Source: The National Patriot.com

And so we now know exactly what Eric Holder meant when he stated that he was ready to make “An extraordinary accommodation” to avoid a contempt of Congress vote in the house.

In an “extraordinary” meeting, at 5pm EST yesterday, Holder arrived empty handed.

Congressman Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee had instructed Holder to produce some 1,300 documents, emails and memos pertaining to subpoenaed documents related to the cover up of the Fast and Furious scandal.

The number of Documents had been severely diluted from the subpoenaed 80,000 such documents by Speaker John Boehner who, reportedly, would like the entire investigation dropped because in his mind, it will be harmful to the republican party in an election year.

Yesterday’s meeting lasted an “extraordinary” 20 minutes and Holder told Chairman Issa that he was willing to…”brief” the committee…regarding the 1,300 documents in question but ONLY if Chairman Issa would first agree to drop any vote regarding contempt of Congress.

In other words…

What Holder is ready to do is, hand over ONLY hand selected documents with no number predetermined and then TELL the committee what is contained within OTHER documents but not SHOW them those documents and BEFORE he does ANY of that, Issa would be REQUIRED to agree that the subpoenas would then be completely satisfied!!!

THAT…According to Eric Holder…is “An extraordinary accommodation.”

This is the same fellow who, just last week, when Congressman Chaffetz READ a couple of emails, word for word TO him, both of which referenced Fast and Furious BY NAME…Insisted that NEITHER of those emails had anything to do with Fast and Furious.

In the corruption addled mind of Eric Holder, the Committee should simply take his word for what is in those documents, emails and memos.

“Extraordinary.”

After the meeting, Issa commented that he still hopes Holder WOULD deliver the documents and that he and his staff would be ready to accept them throughout the night. The fact that he didn’t toss Holder out of the room and slam the door behind him is, in fact, “extraordinary.”

With the vote regarding Holder’s contempt of Congress STILL on the schedule for TODAY, it seems that only further interruption of the process by Speaker Boehner could possibly delay it.

In that regard, Boehner should be made aware that, by conservatives, he is viewed as a RINO skating on a VERY deep pond covered with a VERY thin layer of ice.

As absurd as it is that the head of the Department of Justice has been obstructing justice in this case for more than a year, the absurdity is compounded by a Speaker of the house seemingly willing to assist in the obstruction.

Boehner needs to remove the handcuffs from Issa and the Oversight Committee and slap them on Eric Holder.

Along with more than 200 dead civilians across both sides of the border due to Fast and Furious, we have a murdered U.S. Border Agent, Brian Terry, and Boehner wants to drop the whole thing or just limit the scope to the cover up without holding anyone responsible?

Absurd is a gross understatement.

There should be absolutely NO further delay. The vote regarding Holder’s contempt of Congress needs to be held as soon as possible TODAY. It has been reported that there are more than enough votes to move that vote through the Committee and it has also been reported that there ARE enough votes to seal the deal in the full House.

Once Holder has been found in contempt, he should be removed from his post immediately either by his own resignation, being fired by Obama or at the hands of Impeachment. At that point, his Deputy, Lanny Breuer, also a key figure in the Fast and Furious scandal, should be ordered to immediately turn over ALL the 80,000 documents originally subpoenaed or face immediate contempt charges himself.

This approach should be repeated until either the Department of Justice is manned only by a custodian with a broom or until the documents, emails and memos are lock, stock and smoking gun barrel in the hands if the House Oversight Committee.

As for John Boehner…HE should be busted from House Speaker back down to Town Crier and replaced by someone with the intestinal fortitude and brass nuts to do what must be done to restore integrity to the House and any agency under its oversight.

Chairman Issa is leaving the door open for Holder to walk in and produce some 1’300 documents all the way up to the committee vote on his contempt of Congress this morning at 10am EST but judging from Holder’s chat with the press last night after the meeting, it’s doubtful that will happen.

Holder looked like a man either ordered not to comply or simply completely astonished that Issa would not agree to the “deal” outlined above. In what may have been the most arrogant moment of the evening, Holder actually said that the ball was in Issa’s court and that Issa and the committee still had the ability to change their minds indicating that if the contempt vote went forward, Issa would have no one to blame but himself.

There are 2 things Holder needs to know.

1)      If the vote takes place at 10am EST today, it includes all 80,000 documents, emails and memos originally subpoenaed not just the 1,300 demanded last night.

2)      The ball is most definitely in HIS court.

By Sen. Russell Pearce

President, BanAmnestyNow.com

On Tuesday, April 24th, I was the lone Republican to testify in a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing in Washington, DC. I was the lone voice in defense of Arizona’s SB-1070, a law I was proud to have written and worked for several years to pass. I didn’t mind facing off against senior Democrat U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) and the other witnesses testifying against my bill. In politics, when you’re in the right, you’re never really alone.

Several people have asked me if I was surprised or disappointed that Arizona’s Senator Kyl decided not to attend his own subcommittee? After all, his presence would have doubled the number of voices speaking in support of SB-1070, passed by a majority of Arizona legislators, supported by a majority of Arizona voters, and signed into law by Arizona’s governor?

In truth, no. Senator Kyl understood this hearing was little more than political theater, a protest show staged by Democrats trying to inflame passions with angry rhetoric and score points in an election year more important than any in recent memory. Likewise, Governor Brewer was justified in not testifying. She signed SB1070 into law, but she didn’t write the bill with me, Kris Kobach, or the others who labored for years to finally pass this law. And had she been there, it truly would have been theater because she wears a much bigger political target on her chest than I do.

So why did I agree to testify? Why did I walk into the viper’s nest, knowing I would be surrounded on all sides by career politicians and their cameras? I traveled to Washington and debated Sens. Schumer and Durbin, and the other witnesses, because of the simple reason that I believe our side should never be afraid to stand up and speak what we believe.

In his opening remarks, Sen. Schumer impressed me by calling for solutions to three things that I, and most conservatives, have long called for: (1) ending illegal immigration; (2) fixing America’s broken immigration system; and (3) solving the problem of 23 million illegals currently living in the U.S.

Of course, Mr. Schumer and I differ on solutions to those problems. His calls for amnesty masked under the political rhetoric of “comprehensive immigration reform” ought to be a non-starter. American citizenship should not be rewarded to those who break the law. Similarly, Mr. Schumer’s argument that just as only a federal agency such as the IRS can interpret and enforce the tax code, as opposed to 50 separate state agencies, is irrelevant.

First off, only a career Washington liberal would cite the IRS as an example of something which works and proof that states couldn’t do it better. But more to the point, SB-1070 doesn’t set immigration policy any more than it sets tax policy.

This fear campaign started by the White House, the media and the pro-amnesty groups that Arizona and other states would start trying to dictate new immigration laws is absurd and distracts from what SB-1070 actually does. In short, SB1070 empowers local and state law enforcement to protect their citizens from illegal aliens. And it does so not only in compliance with federal laws, but often written verbatim in concert with federal law.

Believe me, if we were changing immigration policy, America’s borders would be secure, voter ID would be mandatory to both register to vote and cast a ballot, and all employers nationwide would be required to use eVerify to guarantee they were hiring U.S. citizens or legal aliens. But SB1070 doesn’t do any of that, and no amount of posturing, or political theater, will change that fact.

In short, I left a few things for Congress to work on. To all members of Congress, including Senator Schumer, if you decide to get serious on stopping illegal immigration, you won’t be alone like I was in your subcommittee. But if you keep ignoring it, we’ll keep working in the states. I guarantee it.

# # #

Senator Russell Pearce is president of BanAmnestyNow.com and host of The Russell Pearce show.