“Republicans may be moving ahead with an initial vote tomorrow to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress,” PoliticsNation‘s Al Sharpton reported on Tuesday. The vote is being held in response to Holder’s alleged refusal to turn over Justice Department documents related to the department’s now-defunct Fast and Furious program.
Speaking to the press earlier that day, Holder said that House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) had rejected an offer for more documents. “The ball’s in their court,” he said. “They rejected what I thought was an extraordinary offer on our part.”
“The Justice Department has already handed over 140,000 documents,” said Sharpton. “7,600 pages turned over. Eight hearings before Congress.”
On PoliticsNation, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said he suspected that a contempt vote was “the game plan all along.” “This looks like, really, a completely political exercise,” he said.
Earlier that day, on Hardball, host Chris Matthews argued that Issa’ aggressive treatment of Holder had racial overtones. “It smells like it to me,” he said. “And I think there’s a disdain on the part of some Republicans—certainly not all, though, certainly not Boehner—but some of them down in the rank and file, on the red hot part of the team, who do talk down to the president and his friends.”
Ned Resnikoff is an urban policy analyst, researcher, writer, and editor. His byline has appeared in a variety of publications, including the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Dissent, and The Nation. He writes the newsletter Public Comment, which can be found at publiccomment.blog. Recommended
