The President, for the first time, has invoked Executive Privilege to protect DOJ documents that might be related to the ATF supplying guns (~2,000 of them) to Mexican Drug Lords.  The House (in committee) has responded by recommending “contempt of Congress” charges against Eric Holder, the first Black Attorney General (AG) appointed by President Obama.  No one cares to note that Mr. Holder was first promoted to Acting Attorney General under President Bush II.

It is unfortunate that some of the guns supplied probably killed a US Border Patrol Agent, but Mr. Holder was also a Deputy AG under Janet Reno (appointed by President Clinton), who had no problem killing off 73 Americans (wacko though they might have been) at Waco:  men, women, and children.

I am disappointed in the Republican Leadership in that they fail to note that the Democrats were only too eager to tank the career of the first Hispanic AG, Alberto Gonzales, appointed by Bush II.  His only “crime” was to appoint US Attorneys in several States, one of the few remaining perquisites of Presidential powers.

As an aside, From December 2009 (President Obama’s first year in office),

Obama has sent 34 U.S. Attorney nominations to the Senate to date.  Bush had nominated more than 60 U.S. Attorneys and Clinton more than 70 U.S. Attorneys by this time in their first term.

I don’t remember Clinton (re: Reno) nor Bush (re: Gonzales) invoking Executive Privilege in defense of an AG.

To be fair, I do remember Presidents of both parties invoking Executive Privilege to cover up other nefarious acts.  Among other things, President Obama once campaigned on a promise of “open government.”  He should do so now.

I rather think that the whole “Fast and Furious” campaign was designed to prove that American gun dealers should be shut down, even if they are following the laws imposed by States and Congress.  After all, most urban (big-city) voters have no need of firearms … they don’t have to deal with poisonous snakes, varmints who eat the crops that provide their vegetables, nor critters that drill holes in dams that provide water for the cattle that provide their steaks and hamburgers.  It is obviously important that citizens should not be allowed to defend themselves against home invaders that don’t pay much attention to laws.

Iran-Contra actually turned a profit. It would be interesting to know how much the ATF made (or lost).