Wow, this is huge. And since it's being featured in the banner on Drudge, the entire planet knows about it.
The chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona is refusing to testify before Congress regarding Operation Fast and Furious, the federal gun-running scandal that sent U.S. weapons to Mexico.
Patrick J. Cunningham informed the House Oversight Committee late Thursday through his attorney that he will use the Fifth Amendment protection.
Cunningham was ordered Wednesday to appear before Chairman Darrell Issa and the House Oversight Committee regarding his role in the operation that sent more than 2,000 guns to the Sinaloa Cartel. Guns from the failed operation were found at the murder scene of Border Agent Brian Terry.
If you are looking for additional analysis, you should start here.
I hope that now we can officially put to rest the notion that the Obama Admin has been "scandal-free"...
Posted by: Its a Dry Heat | January 20, 2012 at 02:17 PM
Huge indeed.
On the local level, disgraced former Shadow Governor Russell Pearce is standing in line at the unemployment office. America's Toughest Sheriff is sinking like a rock. Andrew Thomas and Lisa Aubuchon are facing imminent disbarment. Most frightening of all to the extreme racist right wing, the local Democratic party, emboldened by the Pearce recall and with new leadership, has actually grown a set of huevos. Just in time for a high turnout election with the name Barack Obama on the top of the ballot, they've finally decided to stand up to the SB 1070 agenda.
On the national level, it's truly appalling. I knew from the outset that the Republican party would not find a candidate with any chance at matching the intelligence, the character, the temperament, or the political skills of Barack Obama. I had no idea it would be this bad. The Tea Party has vanished into thin air. (I wonder if it was even a real phenomenon to begin with.) Occupy Wall Street has seized control of the agenda. Mitt Romney is booed, at a GOP debate no less, as he waffles over releasing his tax returns. Newt Gingrich has reclaimed his place as the most toxic figure in America political history. The nominating process looks to me like the end of one of the great Shakespeare tragedies: Dead bodies piled up all over the stage and the stunned survivors groping for words to describe the carnage. Rosencranz and Guildenstern are dead.
Is the Republican party hopelessly locked into self-destruct mode? Can it possibly emerge from the snakepit in South Carolina with even a single viable candidate? Is there a single GOP leader in Arizona that has not been stained and disgraced with the racist effluent that pours out of Pearce and Arpaio's very souls? The silence of the right wing has been deafening.
A botched up gun smuggling investigation is huge, though, really, truly gargantuously huge. You should just put an ad in the newspaper: National political party on the ropes, desperately seeking another Monica Lewinski. Apply in person. Kneepads not required.
Posted by: One of Newt's Ex's | January 20, 2012 at 03:18 PM
Newt x,
"Shirley you can't be serious".
Posted by: chick | January 20, 2012 at 03:28 PM
The Az rep actually has a short piece about this (it may have been AP) that also shows that Mr. Cunningham has resigned effective next week. There was no information as to whether the resignation is related to this scandal.
Posted by: mahtso | January 20, 2012 at 03:54 PM
@One of Newt's Ex's
Well played ... no better defense than a good offense.
Especially when you have no defense.
Posted by: Tod | January 20, 2012 at 04:01 PM
One of Newt's Ex's has joined the dilusional left. What intelligence has Obama demonstrated? 57 states? Mispronouncing "corps" not once but twice (maybe more)? Not being able to read a spread sheet? There is no evidence whatsoever that BO is intelligent--other than his apologists (especially the media) telling us so. The difference between the two books BO claims to have written are quite stark. The first one, "Dreams from My Father," was admittedly written by leftist radical, Bill Ayers. It was passable, nothing great, just standard fare. The second, "Audacity of Hope," is sophomoric--high school sophomoric.
Not the tome of a scholar.
Posted by: RonJ | January 20, 2012 at 05:37 PM
Posted by: One of Newt's Ex's ....'Huge indeed'.
A huge gaseous diatribe completely off topic.
Not only is Cunningham taking the 5th - as he is in the process of mustering out to a private sector job - his lawyers explicitly outlined why in writing.
Namely, because others at DOJ have perjured themselves before congress - and are furthering the coverup by trying use their client as a patsy.
It appears Dennis Burke scalp was only the beginning. F&F gets more and more like Watergate by the day.
(101 congress members either vote no confidence or demand Holders resignation or both - Obama's response; a fundraiser @ the Apollo in NYC!)
Where did I hear this before? The Arizona Repugna... oops...no...at Expresso Pundit!
Holders resignation rendered around the same time the Supremes nix the noxious Obamacare would be a nice Xmas in July during the Presidential campaign.
Go a long way to bolstering the supposed 'weak field' the GOP has - according to the Obama 'lovin' MSM.
Posted by: Phoenix48 | January 21, 2012 at 11:19 AM
The GOP quote of the day:
"They, thinking that by trotting out this old Gingrich divorce interview that’s old news — and it does feature a disgruntled ex, claiming that it would destroy his campaign — all it does, Sean, is incentivize conservatives and independents who are so sick of the politics of personal destruction, because it’s played so selectively by media, that their target, in this case Newt, he’s now going to soar even more."
“Because we know the game now, and we just won’t put up with it. So, good call, media. Way to go to covertly hype this, even Gingrich opponents. For being so brilliant, they sure are dumb.”
Sarah Palin, of course, speaking to Sean Hannity. Not since George W. Bush has such aggressive stupidity been piled up the American political landscape.
This is gonna be huge. Huge, I tell you.
Posted by: Newtie's Ex | January 21, 2012 at 12:59 PM
At first I thought "Newtie's Ex" was your typical Internet troll then I realized he was trying something more sophisticated like Swift's "A Modest Proposal." What he is doing is showing in microcosm how the Democrats and the allies in the media create and use caricatures of Republicans to demoralize people and distract them from the failings and transgressions of the Obama Administration.
Note his first post. When Patterson posts the latest in a scandal about the Obama Administration running guns to some of the murderous criminals in the Western Hemisphere how does NE respond? By referencing a former Arizona state senator and Joe Arpaio, neither who had anything to with Fast & Furious.
You see the same thing with the media, with their references to the Republican "clown car" and Newt's "open marriage" proposal (where was the similar research on Obama in 2008) while the country hurtles to the fiscal abyss, our mortal enemies come closer to nuclear weapons, and Obama shreds the Constitution when he's not sacrificing national security to special interests in order to ensure his own re-election. Distract, distract, distract.
I have been following politics for 30 years and have graduate degree in political science and Fast & Furious is the most chilling action by an American government that I can think of. Say what you want about Watergate, Iran Contra, or Lewinsky/Clinton but at least they didn't involve an American administration trying to regulate a Constitutional right by using a pile of dead Mexicans that it appears they were accessories in killing.
Holy crap.
You know it's strange when all the facts point to the reasonable speculation about killing foreign nationals to strip Americans of their rights, the Obama Administration and their allies have no response but to distract and demonize. Please prove me wrong, I want to be wrong about this - but so far they do nothing.
Thanks NE for doing this, I know like Swift your writing was all satire, showing us in a nutshell how the Democrats work - I thought the Lewinsky touch was great, because I'm sure you're as equally horrified/mystified as we all are by this.
Posted by: Anonymous Mike | January 21, 2012 at 02:51 PM
You send people to PJmedia for more info? What a crock of shite. Guess the bar does not have mandatory drug testing.
If you want the real scoop on Fat & Furious, check out http://waronguns.blogspot.com/ and http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/
And get the info FROM THE GUYS THAT BROKE THE STORY not some media hacks.
Posted by: Bob | January 21, 2012 at 05:57 PM
I remember Cunningham. He was a nice guy, but very liberal. When he was the Assistant Director at ADEQ, he pushed the boundaries of the law and we had to hammer him in committee. He was overstepping the laws and we had him in committee hearings in the Government Accountaility and Reform Committee for an entire session.
Overstepping the law is looking like a pattern.
Posted by: State Rep. Jack Harper | January 21, 2012 at 11:02 PM
I remember Jack Harper...he was that tool that thought legislators should be able to go right into lobbying.
Posted by: Liver Worst | January 22, 2012 at 03:53 PM
Makes a guy want to pine for simpler days like this one:
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1889.html
Posted by: westsider | January 22, 2012 at 06:13 PM
I find it troubling that Congress (and society) is stunned when people invoke their constitutional privilege against self incrimination. In Watts v. Indiana Justice Robert H. Jackson wrote, "any lawyer worth his salt will tell the suspect in no uncertain terms to make no statement to police under any circumstances." I suspect that Justice Jackson would also include Congress if he were representing Cunningham today.
Don't misunderstand me, if Cunningham has committed a crime, misfeasance, or malfeasance while in office, he ought to be punished for it. Of course, he should not be compelled to testify and make statements that could be used against him.
Posted by: Brian | January 23, 2012 at 09:18 PM
20% of the American piublc are liberal yet they have enough control to overwhelm the 40%-45% of Americans who are conservative. They dont do it with truth and fairplay. They do it through intimidation and deceit. The entire educational field known as social studies is devoted to Marxism, yet we allow it in our schools. This is what happens when miseducated, entitled children are not corrected. For Gods sake if my dog acted in this manner, I would have to put her down.
Posted by: Tanis | February 01, 2012 at 08:08 PM