Is Issa a trustworthy source re Fast & Furious? ‘Murdergate’ update!

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Drug murder map of Mexico

From the Guardian, Jan. 2011. We could address this by blaming Obama for one failed program or we could note how keeping marijuana illegal here creates the profit motive that leads to this map. UPDATE: Pink dots are cities with at least one drug-related murder; red pins have 70+.

This story is Geoff Willis’s beat, but as I don’t know if he’s going to write about today’s development I thought I’d better send out the alert.  (Actually, I was willing to post anything to get that Bachmann-Taitz photo off of the first slot in the picture rotation.  It’s killing us!)  I’m putting ‘Murdergate’ in quotes, but once again I stress that I am in total sympathy with Geoff about the Republicans making this their MAIN ATTACK on President Obama in 2012.  (Of course, I say that as one who will cast a not-entirely-unconflicted-but-certainly-comfortable vote for Obama.)

The big development about yesterday’s news is reported in this story in Talking Points Memo.  I reproduce here the first four paragraphs of that article, which all “Murdergate” afficianados should read.

At least twenty weapons that were allowed to “walk” during a Bush-era investigation aimed at combating gun trafficking were later recovered in Mexico, documents the Justice Department sent to congressional investigators on Thursday indicate.

One of the distinctions that Republicans have drawn between Operation Fast and Furious, the flawed investigation that allowed weapons to “walk” into Mexico during the Obama administration, and Operation Wide Receiver, which did the same during the Bush administration, is that authorities who took part in the earlier investigation were coordinating their efforts with Mexican authorities.

“The difference in the previous administration is there was coordination with the Mexican government,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) said at a hearing in December. “They made a real effort under Wide Receiver to pass off a small amount of weapons and track them.”

But new documents DOJ disclosed to congressional investigators on Thursday appear to indicate that ATF officials didn’t even consider looping Mexican authorities in on their operation until several months after the investigation began and ATF had already lost track of weapons that likely ended up in Mexico.

If you think that this shows that this program — even if not well-conceived and not well-executed — was also not initiated by the current administration, well then that just shows that you haven’t yet read the material yet to be published by that Issa-Willis Axis, surely coming any moment now!

C’mon, guys, we can’t let this story die!  It’s the best thing you got going this year apart from Romney’s Death Star Rovian PR ninjas!


About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)