Critics of House Republicans keep saying they're just trying to score political points. But partisan hackery doesn't make transparency less important.
Eugene Robinson thinks that Eric Holder is getting a raw deal in the Fast and Furious investigation, describing it as a "witch hunt" and an "inquisition," characterizations that strike me as a bit overwrought, unless the GOP has dusted off the John Yoo memos without telling anyone. Fast and Furious was "a grievous error," he writes, for even when it became clear that the illegal guns permitted into Mexico were used "as instruments of mayhem, the operation continued."
Then this passage:
The House wants to go fishing in a vast sea of documents, some of which relate to ongoing investigations. As a believer in sunshine and disclosure, I don't much care for questionable claims of executive privilege. But I like the politically motivated sideshow the GOP is staging even less.
That's really something.
A "questionable claim of executive privilege" is a transgression against the law, it impedes Congress from carrying out its vital oversight function, and keeps information from the American public. That's serious. Does Robinson really think a political sideshow is worse than all that?