White House very nervous about coverage of Fast and Furious
This has become an extremely sensitive issue at the White House and for good reason; Holder may have been caught in a lie in his testimony before Congress.
Note: Congressional perjury usually sends the transgressor to jail.
A CBS reporter, Sharyl Atkisson, told Laura Ingraham (via Weekly Standard):
Ingraham: So they were literally screaming at you?
Attkisson: Yes. Well the DOJ woman was just yelling at me. The guy from the White House on Friday night literally screamed at me and cussed at me. [Laura: Who was the person? Who was the person at Justice screaming?] Eric Schultz. Oh, the person screaming was [DOJ spokeswoman] Tracy Schmaler, she was yelling not screaming. And the person who screamed at me was Eric Schultz at the White House."Finally, Attkisson notes that the White House is claiming that a thorough investigation of the scandal is unwarranted:
[The White House and Justice Department] will tell you that I'm the only reporter--as they told me--that is not reasonable. They say the Washington Post is reasonable, the LA Times is reasonable, the New York Times is reasonable, I'm the only one who thinks this is a story, and they think I'm unfair and biased by pursuing it.
For Watergate buffs, that sounds eerily like the advice given to Ben Bradlee by the Nixon White House. Press Secretary Ron Zeigler angrily called Bradlee, executive editor at the time, and complained that no one else in the country was worried about this break in story except the Post. If history is any guide, and I were CBS, I would redouble my efforts to get to the bottom of this story.
Republicans have called for a special prosecutor and they will probably get it. But Holder is smart enough to know his orders without asking; stall, stonewall, obstruct as much as possible, as long as possible, in order to drag the investigation out beyond the election.
See also: Fast and Furious: Let It Bleed