During the hours leading up to the vote of contempt in the House Oversight Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder and Oversight Chairman Darrell “Witch Hunt” Issa met in an effort to resolve the situation.
That meeting was obviously fruitless, and now we may know why.
According to Newsweek, Darrell Issa’s chief investigative counsel offered to halt the contempt vote in exchange for the resignation of Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer.
via TPM
Issa staffer Stephen Castor brought up the issue of “accountability” during a phone call with a senior DOJ official last week, according to the report. Castor reportedly said they could head off the contempt vote if Breuer stepped down.
Breuer, who heads the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, apologized in October for not telling other Justice Department officials that guns were allowed to “walk” during the Bush administration when Congress first raised questions about Operation Fast And Furious in early 2011. [...]
“The reason that this contempt motion happened is that Issa didn’t come up with any evidence and didn’t get a scalp,” Matthew Miller, DOJ’s former communications director, told Klaidman. “When you set expectations that high and you don’t deliver, you have to explain why.”
Because Darrell Issa is really bad at his job, and because he could not find any incriminating evidence implicating the Obama administration, Issa demanded a sacrifice at the alter of political theater.
Because if you spend an entire year on an investigation and you return without the witch’s broom, people are going to ask why you wasted all of that time on nothing.
Not coincidentally, the Republicans also spent over a year investigating the solar-power manufacturer Solyndra seeking incriminating evidence that would implicate the Obama administration, but in a similar fashion, all they could turn up was fingers pointing back to George W. Bush.
Fortunately Eric Holder did not provide Issa with the face-saving human sacrifice he was looking for.
