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Subscribe to RSSHouse Democrats are bracing for defections during Thursday's vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress after the National Rifle Association (NRA) announced they will be including the vote in their "future candidate evaluations."
"It is no secret that the NRA does not admire Attorney General Holder," a letter from the NRA to members of the House of Representatives reads. "For years, we have pointed out his history of anti-second Amendment advocacy and enforcement actions."
In an effort to persuade Democrats from voting for the contempt citation because of their fear of repercussions from the enormously powerful gun lobby, aides say that House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) is actively engaging members of their caucus to encourage them to vote against the measure, something called "whipping" on Capitol Hill.
"I think there are some members that will consider the recommendations of the NRA," Hoyer said to reporters today. "Whether they think those recommendations are founded or not, I don't know at this point."
The number of Democratic defections could reach 31, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA), whose committee voted last Wednesday to move the contempt citation to a full House vote.
Issa cites a letter sent from 31 Democrats to the Obama administration last year asking for them to be forthcoming with details of the Fast and Furious gun-walking operation as a template for possible Democratic "yes" votes.
While 31 Democrats voting for the contempt citation on Thursday may be overly optimistic, the sway of the NRA during an election year is a legitimate concern for Democrats. Democrats running in swing districts need the support of organizations like the NRA (or at least not their opposition) to stop more conservative opponents from taking them down in November.
But the NRA has made it crystal clear that it supports finding Holder in contempt of Congress, and they think members of Congress should as well.
"The reason we support the contempt resolution is the same reason we first called for Attorney General Holder's resignation more than a year ago: the Department's obstruction of congressional oversight of a program that cost lives in support of an anti-gun agenda," the NRA's letter reads. "This is an issue of the utmost seriousness and the NRA will consider this vote in our future candidate evaluations."
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Now that is bi-partisanship.
Question for the day: Who has more conservatives' shorthairs in their grasp tugging on them when they want attention, Grover Nordquist or the NRA? Bonus questions: Which of them tugs harder, and how big are their hands to have that many shorthairs in them?
The Democrats are jumping onboard the "Dump Holder" bus......over 30 so far, the Kenyan is the next one to go.....too funny.
The same people that rail about the Health Care Law being too long to read and understand with 3 1/2 years to do it are now saying they have read 7600 pages in less than 8 months. How does that work?
Not sure where the story is here. A handful of Dems are intimidated by the NRA into considering going along with a party line political vote against Holder, and this is supposed to change the perception of the vote? How? It will still be a party line vote, and it will have no legal impact.
If the intention is to embarrass Holder or Obama, I have a feeling it will only have the reverse effect. Regardless of Darrell Issa's hopes for his own glory, we won't be seeing Eric Holder arrested anytime soon. And I strongly doubt he'll resign, much as the NRA and the GOP wish he would.
There's no real scandal here. Just some people trying to puff themselves up. We already knew that Brian Terry's death was not due to F&F, and that the attempts to pin other deaths on the program were suspect. We already knew that this wasn't some dark conspiracy to take everyone's guns away. And now there's an excellent article by Katherine Eban in Fortune that pretty much tells what's really going on here. Just another case of dirty laundry, bureaucracy, and personal vendettas, somehow being played by Darrell Issa as a way to keep his name in the news. One can only hope somebody is keeping track of how much of the taxpayers' money he has thrown away on this.
The easiest way to embarass the Republicans would be to turn over the documents if nothing is there. In my opinion, they're both using this for political gain. The democrats are using it to make the republicans look paranoid and out of touch. The republicans are using it to make the democrats look corrupt. Who knows what the real truth is. You don't get a whole lot of truth from our politicians lately.
This certainly supports the need of severe campaign reform and and the elimination of the entire lobbying industry.
When any (ANY) special interest can visibly sway Congress in one direction or another, it's bad business.
The ATF botching an operation, imagine that. The reason these Republibots are trying to tie everyone they hate into the failure shows they have nothing else to throw out there. No praise for Romney? No list of Republican accomplishments? Nope. Nothing but Rovian fabrications and Issa rantings.
Your vote don't mean @!$%# because organizations like the NRA rule the roost.
They are going to win, and we're going to hell in a handbasket.
For those people that quote "justice for the Terry family", this should not be a partisan issue. The people here have already decided Obama and Holder are guilty and not the people who started the program , who ran the program, and who decided that there would be no tracking or accountability for the weapons in question. These people should also be at the forefront, and if accountability goes all the way to the top then so be it. That includes at the very least the head of the ATF and the gun shops where the guns are coming from during the operation.
None of these people are in the hot seat so to me this sounds like bull crap. Something to hold on to just in case the healthcare decision dosent go the way the right wants, they have their Obama's a criminal and heres the proof campaign ready to launch.
Its something else to talk about besides the rights agenda.
President Obama has already taken action against those ATF members who were involved in the Fast and Furious scheme. Right wingers would know this if they ever read or heard anything that was not coming from liars and haters of the President and everything he has done for the good of the middle class, the working poor and the very poor. Holder put an end to Fast and Furious. The gun sellers were prosecuted and found guilty. The GOP and their hateful agendas are going to be exposed for people who do care about the truth.
June 10, 2011.........over a year ago, 31 House Democrats signed a letter to AG Holder, urging him to cooperate with the House Committee and provide copies of all documents and emails regarding the Fast and Furious operation. When did the NRA say that the vote tomorrow on holding Holder in contempt of Congress will be used as a "grading vote"? Wasn't that just this week? So, why did 31 House Democrats sign that letter over a year ago? Maybe because they thought it was the right thing to do?
It is expected that 21, not 31, Democrats will vote YES to hold Holder in contempt of Congress tomorrow. And to the poster, I did not look at the screen name, who said any Democrat who votes YES tomorrow, he will do whatever he can to see that they lose their chance for reelection in the Democratic primary election. Sorry......you're a day late and a $ short. Democratic primary elections are over....NY and Utah were the last and they happened yesterday. But if you are so passionate about getting those Dems out of office, feel free to campaign for and support their Republican opponents.
The only person who expects as high as 21 Dems to vote in this nonsense is Darrell Issa. Fox is trumpeting now that they've heard of 5. Five Dems voting out of fear of the NRA and knowing it's a formality does not a bipartisan resolution make. Now, if the GOP had 50 or 60 Dems agreeing with them, with or without Pelosi, I'd have to say that would be bipartisan. But we know that's not going to happen. Looks like there will be a formality vote tomorrow and it will have no impact other than to show the GOP's desperation re the November election. Stunts like this will only strengthen the public perception that they're more interested in politics than governing.
And we have the full, sordid story now from the Eban article. Which shows no conspiracy, no criminality but a lot of very typical backbiting and squabbling within ATF. Looks like AG Holder correctly deduced this is really petty material, and that it was not within Darrell Issa's sphere to be evaluating back and forth office rivalries and personal conflicts. You could argue that Holder should just hand over all this dirty laundry (the parts that don't affect current ATF investigations and it looks like most of it does), but let's think about that. Do you really want the Congress wasting tax dollars evaluating Larry Alt's poor opinion of SA Hope McCallister?
All I want to know is where is all of the transparency the the President talked about when he was campaigning and first took office?
Whom ever those Democrats are.....if you VOTE Yes, Voter's In November will REMEMBER! The hell with The NRA! I own a gun and believe in The 2nd Amendment but those folks are just plain bat@!$%# crazy!
Afraid of the truth are ya?
Read an interesting article today that basically shows Issa's "whistleblower" (Dodson) was in fact the one who LET the guns walk behind his bosses backs without telling them. He got sick of playing by the rules apparently. Facts are provided in the article, read if you arent so blinded by politics you dont want to know the truth...(ps i verified some of this info from a friend who used to work for former AZ AG Goddard)
That Fortune article by Katherine Eban is the first dose of sanity we've had in this story in months.
Although I have to admit I found Larry Alt's public memo re his team leader to be hysterical. Very typical bad personal relations in the office...
The gun issue is just one part of this equation. The first part of the equation is that we have the power crazy Issa who is hell bent on making a name for himself and stirring up the old boogie man "Obama is after your guns theory". It's election time --so let's bring that old theory out of the closet again. That then stirs up the crazies and gets them buying more guns and ammo....which makes the NRA and gun sellers happy. But the most important part of the equation is that plain and simple this is a perfect example of why we need to get the money out of our politics. It is proof positive that our representatives are bought and paid for when a group like the NRA can make them shake in their boots and control the outcome of a vote. If there should be a battle cry in this country, it should be to rid D.C. of all lobbyist.
It could hardly be a conspiracy by the Obama administration to take away assault weapons when Fast and Furious started during the Bush administration. That would mean that the Bush administration was genious at setting up the Obama administration. And if the Obama administration were going to take away assault weapons, they certainly would have gone after that issue after Gabbie Giffords was shot.
You my friend are an idiot.
Obama's NOT after our guns? READ THIS:
Thank Obama and remember this when you vote in 2012
Disarming America .
Marlin Firearms bought out by Soros
Marlin Firearms is already closing its doors! They are doing it to us, America! Even if you do not own a gun you need to know this. This needs to be spread to all gun owners and sportsman. We cannot rely on the media to inform us of these types of matters.
Something You May Not Know That Is Happening
Who is buying companies, manufacturing guns??? For the last several years a company called The Freedom Group has been buying up gun and ammunition manufacturers. Some of the companies are Bushmaster, Marlin, Remington, DPMS, Dakota Arms and H&R. Some people worry that this Freedom Group is going to control most of the firearms companies in the United States . If you control the manufacturers you can decide to stop selling to civilians.
What a perfect way to control guns.
Now if you do some digging you will see that The Freedom Group is owned by a company called Cerberus Capital Management. Guess who controls Cerberus??? GEORGE SOROS!!! He wants to restrict or ban all civilian guns.
Please pass this on to all your freedom loving friends. This needs to come out. Why have we not heard about this in the "mainstream" media? I would think this would be BIG news. (Soros also owns Progressive Insurance). If you don't know who George Soros is, you need to do some Research. He backed Obama with millions of dollars and Obama is a puppet on a string controlled by Soros.
Send this to every gun owner in America .
What in the world does that have to do with an internal ATF squabble?
And besides the silly conspiracy theory, do you therefore also acknowledge that GOP politicians are "a puppet on a string" pulled by conservative billionaires? Because otherwise, your argument makes no sense.
David- its from Beck U. That fine academic institution
When the truth is in Obama's favor it is a lie to the republicans who will vote for Romney who will again cause a recession/depression and harm more Americans with all the cuts to the poor and to those who were harmed by the Bush/republican recession that President Obama and Democrats tried so hard to help Americans recover from. The GOP stood against every solution because they have become hateful and believe that Fox is all they need to rely on to keep the people fooled and dumb. That is true of the republicans posting here.
All the dems should vote with the repubs tomorrow all 431 whatever should censor . It would be a win win for the dems and POTUS and here's how. First of all those dems who are really scared of the NRA would be given cover , then the president could come out and tell the American people that he is the only one brave enough to stand up to the NRA . Plus it would result in the NRA looking kind of silly. It takes a little critical thinking to get all I am suggesting but think about it and finally the pres could give a wonderful speech standing behind his friend. It's more then a win win.
yea right..... lol
NOBAMA2012, the Socialist/Marxist Experiment is a FAILURE!
So much for Transparency
30 + defectors from the Democrats. So much for calling this a partisan witch hunt. Good luck with that argument Obama!! They will soon sell you out as well.
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Picking and chosing which Articles of our Constitution you will or will not enforce is NOT part of the oath he took when inauguratted in 2009.
NOBAMA2012... it's time for a President that takes his Oath Seriously!
The irony of this all and the scariest of all is that these words are spoken from a Constitutional Lawyer and Professor. At this point I don't know whether Obama is just incompetant or is clever enough to purposely manipulate the Constittution in order to help him execute his liberal agenda and to continue his "transformation" of the U.S. Either scenario is scary. Obama must go!
It's a shame that DEMS or the GOP have to vote on something they don't agree on just because of an outside source...what about taking a stand in doing the right thing for once the GOP has been against PRESIDENT OOOO since day one, remember their number one goal is to make him a one term president...if you are a DEM in you vote for the charges against holder just because you stay in a red district to try in save your career you really not a DEM anyway and guess what you still will lose....
That's right 4my....vote to protect Holder. After all, isn't that what it's all about?
Forget about a MURDERED American. Forget about Holder lying and getting caught. Forget about Holder withholding tens of THOUSANDS of documents about the case. Forget about anything and everything except protecting Holder.
Never mind integrity. Never mind honesty. Never mind that this man, and Obama BOTH swore to DEFEND this nation and to enforce EVERY Federal law and not pick and choose what they would or wouldn't do.
Nah, just take care of Holder.
Try it again.
Brian Terry was not killed by a weapon from F&F. Read the FBI release and learn the facts on that one.
Eric Holder didn't lie. Darrell Issa just wants you to think that there's some giant difference between "a few weeks" and "two months". Anyone working a busy job can tell you there isn't. The documents being withheld are either part of ongoing investigations that Issa could disrupt (which would be against the law to produce) or are Grand Jury testimony (again against the law to produce), or have to do with what we now know are really petty internal matters in the ATF, which have nothing to do with national or internal security, and thus are again outside Issa's small purview. You should also know that Issa has regularly changed up on his demands in order to keep Justice scrambling and make it look like he's not getting any cooperation.
If you really are concerned about integrity and honesty, you should be asking why Darrell Issa is grandstanding like this and hiding behind the body of a slain Border Patrol agent whose death was only associated with this by a tangent. You should be asking why John Dodson lied to reporters and gave them the false impression that a memo from Dave Vohl meant one thing when it meant something completely different. You should be asking why Dodson misled investigators by submitting his own file of gun walking, which was not part of F&F, and then lied about his own conduct. And maybe you could ask why Darrell Issa and John Dodson apparently think so little of the oaths they swore that they would behave in this manner.
Why don't you get back to us after you've done some research?
As an American I am tiered of all this fear that I hear all day on the news. Fear of the money Barron's , fear of the military complex, fear of the NRA, fear of liberals and fear of conservatives. We need to come out of this darkness and pull together to get this country back to work for all americans.
crazy
The only reason that Democrats don't like the Second Amendment is that most of them dont wanna spend their food stamp money to buy a firearm!!!
Oh, I see how it works. If a Democratic appointed Attorney General spends EIGHTEEN MONTHS hiding documents on why and how weapons were given to drug cartels, Americans were killed, who is responsible, and then also gets caught LYING at least twice, and the House is going to vote to hold him in comtempt for this garbage;
It's a "defection" if a Democrat is HONEST enough to NOT attempt to cover up for him or protect him.
Cummings, the Democrat Senior member of the Committee told Terry's parents, no matter what, no matter who, they would get answers. No answers have been provided and Cummings is now attempting to PROTECT Holder and turn his back on a MURDERED American and his family, not even counting the nation itself.
Liberal pukes run the so called "mainstream" media. When someone is HONEST enough to actually see that Holder is just a left wing, political hack, that is doing nothing more than trying to pull a CYA for himself, and the media calls it "defecting", then the media shouldn't even call it "news" or "journalism" anymore.
MSNBC should just call itself the Obama Campaign Media Headquarters and simply admit that all they do is lick his shoes for him.
Cheryl please read my above post. Most of what you're saying is either distorted or untrue. Please do some research on this matter, I strongly urge you to please read the FBI release on the indictment following the shootout where Brian Terry died. You'll find you've been misled about who killed Agent Terry and with what weapon. Then please read Katherine Eban's excellent article in Fortune about this entire affair. Then come back with that information in hand,
Right after fox noise admits their own agenda. Lol
Issa has opublically stated in Nov 2010 he wanted to "hold meeting 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 40 weeks a year" on wrong doing by the Obama administration. On Sunday 6/24/12 when asked he has "no evidence" of wrong doing.
This is a political hatchet job- plain and simple. If Issa really really wanted to find out about fast and furious he may have called ONE Bush administration official who began the concept. Maybe just ONE.
You loons are truly idiotic if you think 30 dems would vote against Holder. Maybe 5 or 6 from deep red states just trying to keep their job.
Why doesnt Issa hold a meeting on why RepubliCONS met before Obama was inaugurated to discuss defeating him. Why there have been 180+ and counting filibusters- the most in American History.
"You loons are truly idiotic if you think 30 dems would vote against Holder. Maybe 5 or 6 from deep red states just trying to keep their job."
The ONLY time you see "bipartisanship" is when common sense Democrats vote WITH Republicans.
NOBAMA2012... Hope & CHANGE? WE WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN!
ssmithlg- wanna make a Mitt size $10,000 wager no 31 dems vote for condempt on Holder?
In 2006 Krugman wrote a book called "consciense of a liberal" where he recommended the dems after 2008 use the Heritage Foundation, Mittens implemented health care plan, to form a bi partisan approach to solving health care.
So please- check the publication date, check the content- what i say is accurate. So exactly who was not willing to extend bi partisanship?
180+ and counting filibusters
demint tweets we will break him feb 2009 regarding Obama
Prior to Obama's inauguration the RepubliCONS meet to discuss how to make his Presidency a failure.
All of this with them just having run on the motto Country First