The Strange Politics of Fast & Furious

I will write more on this later, but for those trying to make the political point that Fast & Furious shows the abject failure of the War on Drugs, the following article shows that the realities of the case are far more complex. Dan Olmstead really got me motivated to seek some answers here. Last night on CNN Soledad O'Brien first interviewed Katherine Eban, who wrote the attached article for Fortune magazine, and then interviewed a Republican member of Issa’s committee—Issa refused to come on to discuss the article—who blasted the article in every way possible short of actually addressing the facts asserted by Ms. Eban. Giver her credit, O’Brien was tenacious, fierce even in her questioning, but the congressman was not going to budge in the direction of anything like the truth.

The main points of the article as I see them are as follows, though you can hit the link and check it out for yourself.

1) The only real gun walking that took place in Fast and Furious was a single case initiated by the supposed whistle blower, John Dodson. 2) The amount of gun trafficking going on legally in Arizona between several hundred legal gun dealers, a handful of poor slubs trying to make a few dollars on the edge of the gun operations (one on food stamps) and Mexican drug gangs is staggering, with single deals running into the hundreds of weapons. 3) ATF officials tried repeatedly to take cases to prosecutors for trafficking and the prosecutors refused repeatedly to bring charges. 4) Only after the death of the customs agent were charges brought in any case. 5) ATF officials are completely hamstrung, specifically by a lack of a data base which would allow them to electronically track gun sales in real time, and weak laws which the gunrunners find easy to outmaneuver. 6) The main political entity responsible for the inherent weakness of the trafficking effort legislatively is the National Rifle Association—The NRA .

Ms. Eban made the case on CNN last night that no guns were actually walked as a result of fast and furious and I do find it odd that no news web site has anything on this Fortune article considering the explosive nature of the allegations. Quite clearly more investigation is called for. Although likely to be held in contempt by vote of Congress today, Holder, as I said, seems to be doing fine. Once again the NRA’s fingers are on this case in that regard though also. They are scoring this vote meaning Democrats who vote against the contempt citation will get a lower NRA score in voter guides in the fall. According to reports I saw on NBC that will sway about 30 democrats to vote in favor. In a strange irony of the case O’Brien pointed out repeatedly that the Republican right  is apoplectic that the Attorney General did not do more to seize more weapons which and here’s the rub purchased legally in the United States. In Polls Repubs and Dems are virtually upside down in their response to gun rights with 2/3 of repubs in favor of fairly unrestricted access and 2/3 of dems in favor of stronger regulation.  The NRA which both feeds off that sentiment and intensifies its affect is one of the strongest lobbies in Washington and around the country.  

Merits aside, it seems to me there is no national consensus on an overhaul of the nation’s drug policies. While most would agree that treatment is far preferable to incarceration even in my home state,  the very liberal New York, reforming what were commonly referred to as The Rockefeller Drug Laws required a nearly decade long effort and the involvement of Russell Simmons and other high profile personalities.

There is also no national consensus on guns. The violence we have seen in Chicago this year, and the violence In Mexico can be directly traced to drugs, guns, and the NRA.

http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2012/06/27/fast-and-furious-truth/

http://www.pollingreport.com/guns.htm