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Attorney General Eric Holder testified before Congress today in what was the most confrontational hearing over the botched "gunwalking" scheme, a.k.a. Operation Fast and Furious, to date. The investigation has been going on for a year at this point and, as Wired.com's Danger Room reporter Robert Beckhusen writes, it's reached a kind of stalemate, in which the GOP demands documents to prove whether Holder knew about the operation before it became public while Holder insists the Justice Department has already provided "virtually unprecedented access" to Congress. So what's left to do with practically no agreement between the two sides? Exchange a whole lot of fiery, combative statements. Here were the flash points:
Issa and Holder fire off opening remarks Marking the one-year anniversary of the investigation, Congressman Darrell Issa promises he won't let another Groundhog's Day go by without bringing justice to Brian Terry, the border patrol agent shot and killed by a gun sold in the Fast and Furious operation. Holder says he took action as soon as he learned of the mission.
Congresswoman Ann Marie Buerkle plays the death card After calling for Holder's resignation, Rep. Buerkle poses a loaded question. "Let me ask it this way: How many more Border Patrol agents really have to die as part of Operation Fast and Furious for you to take responsibility?” Holder replies that the question is "beneath a member of Congress":
