Amid the ongoing controversies over political discrimination at the IRS and the Justice Department's seizure of two-months-worth of Associated Press (AP) phone records, the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday questioned Attorney General Eric Holder on those and other controversies tied to the Obama administration. At the opening of the committee's hearing to conduct Justice Department oversight, Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told Holder he is “deeply concerned about a pattern I see emerging at the department under your leadership in which conclusions reached by career attorneys after thorough investigation are overruled by administration appointees for political reasons”/CBS News. More here. (AP photo)

Question: Could these controversies come together to become President Obama's Watergate?

First District GOP Rep. Raul Labrador was the first member of Congress to call for Attorney General Eric Holder's resignation in 2011 and says there's a new reason for him to go — his handling of the Petraeus inquiry. “Holder should have resigned a long time ago,” Labrador said in a Wednesday Capitol Hill news conference. “Once again, it shows the incompetence or the complete neglect and dereliction of duty in Eric Holder's administration.” I blogged yesterday about Labrador's call on his party to press for immigration reform and reach out to Hispanic voters. I left out his comments on Holder and his view of President Obama's handling of immigration/Dan Popkey, Idaho Statesman. More here.

Question: Do you want President Obama to dump Attorney General Eric Holder?

The GOP-led House voted Thursday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder (shown in AP file photo) in contempt of Congress for failing to provide key information pertaining to Operation Fast and Furious, making Holder the first sitting Cabinet member to be held in contempt. The vote was 255-67 with one lawmaker voting not present. Seventeen Democrats broke ranks to vote in favor of contempt, while two Republicans voted against the measure. … The GOP-led House took the step over the alleged failure to provide additional information about the failed gun-running operation known as Fast and Furious which was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — a division of the Justice Department led by Holder. Democrats walked out of the chamber ahead of the vote/FoxNews. More here.

Thoughts?

Today Idaho First District Congressman Raúl Labrador voted with the majority of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee to find Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his role in the Department of Justice withholding evidence from the Committee in the botched Fast and Furious scandal.  The gun-running operation resulted in the death of United States Border Patrol agent Brian Terry as well as hundreds of innocent Mexican citizens.  The vote was 23-17. Labrador: “It has been over a year since this committee first requested and then demanded full documentation of DOJ files regarding this terrible operation.  We sought basic answers: who authorized it, when they authorized it and why they continued to authorize it.  Attorney General Holder has evaded questions and provided false information in an attempt to stonewall this committee from discovering the truth, and he must be held accountable for these actions.” Full Labrador news release here. (AP photo of Attorney General Eric Holder answering reporters' questions Tuesday)

Question: Do you agree with Congressman Labrador's vote?

House Republicans accused Attorney General Eric Holder of hiding information at a Thursday hearing over the botched “Fast and Furious” gun-trafficking investigation. Holder dismissed a call by Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, for him to quit, saying he’s not to blame for the scandal. Holder testified for four tense hours to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Affairs about “Fast and Furious.” It was a botched operation in which the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives let illegal weapons flow across the border into Mexico and into hands of criminals as part of a failed sting operation meant to track the guns and nab drug lords. Some Republicans on the committee suggested that Holder was engaged in a cover-up and had been misleading Congress. “Because you have been grossly incompetent in the way that you have prepared before coming to Congress, I think you should resign,” Labrador said/Sean Cockerham, Idaho Statesman. More here. (AP photo: Attorney General Eric Holder testifies Thursday)

Reaction?

Thursday was another busy day in the limelight for Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador. After the 1st Congressional District Republican called on Attorney General Eric Holder to resign, the Los Angeles Times and the D.C. bureau of the Associated Press picked up on the angle for their stories on the Operation Fast and Furious fallout. Fox News also came calling for Labrador. Not bad for a freshman lawmaker from Idaho? No. Pretty remarkable for a freshman lawmaker from Idaho. And it shows that Labrador has the keenest political instinct of any elected official in Idaho. I’m not calling Labrador a natural. But he’s close/Kevin Richert, Idaho Statesman. More here. (Raul Labrador holds up a “beat Pelosi” button on Election Day 2010)

Question: Funny, I was thinking this week that Labrador gets a heckuva lot of attention for a Tea Party congressman living in a flyover red state. Do you agree that he's a natural when it comes to politics?

Saying Eric Holder is “either lying or grossly incompetent,' 1st Congressional District Rep. Raul Labrador today called for the attorney general's resignation. Labrador has joined a list of Republicans criticizing Holder's May 3 testimony about Operation Fast and Furious, a gun trafficking network established in an attempt to infiltrate Mexican drug cartels. “It is clear from recently released documents that Mr. Holder did in fact know about Fast and Furious well before he publicly admitted,” said Labrador in a news release. “It is clear he has not been honest about the extent of his involvement with the failed Fast and Furious program and should not be entrusted with managing the Department of Justice. He cannot avoid responsibility for his involvement with a government program that directly led to the tragic death of a decorated U.S. Border Patrol agent”/Kevin Richert, Idaho Statesman. More here. (AP file photo: Eric Holder)

Question: Should Eric Holder resign as a result of Operation Fast & Furious?

President Obama has instructed the Justice Department to stop defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, which has since 1996 banned federal recognition of same-sex unions. The announcement was made in a letter from Attorney General Eric Holder to congressional leaders in relation to two lawsuits, Pedersen v. OPM and Windsor v. United States, which challenge a section of DOMA that defines marriage for federal purposes as only between one man and one woman. Obama “has made the determination,” Holder wrote, that Section 3 “as applied to same-sex couples who are legally married under state law, violates the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment”/ABC News. More here.

Question: Do you support the decision by the Obama administration to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act, which bans the recognition of same-sex unions?

Attorney General Eric Holder, in a speech to Justice Department employees, said the United States is a nation of cowards on matters of race and that most Americans avoid discussing awkward racial issues. That begs me to question if such is the reason Roland Burris is still a member of the United States Senate. A spotlight seeking egomaniac with questionable abilities, he has been controversial from the start as Obama’s replacement. He convinced everyone, at the outset, that he was squeaky clean when it came to his appointment by “Pay to Play” Blogojevich. Well, as squeaky clean as one is when involved in Illinois politics. Which would seem to be not very/Dogwalk Musings. More here.

Question: Is the United States a “nation of cowards” on matters of race?

“There must be strong reasons to reject a new President’s nominee but my ‘nay’ vote today is justified regarding Eric Holder’s nomination to become Attorney General of the United States,” said Crapo.  “Holder’s track record is one that many Idahoans take issue with.  He is on record supporting a number of steps that would push back our Second Amendment rights and increase regulation to legally own firearms/U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. Statements from Crapo, Jim Risch (pdf) here.

Question: Do you believe that new AG Eric Holder poses a threat to gun rights?