ticklethewire.com
Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-Va.) — in the midst of a committee hearing Tuesday in which Congressional members bashed ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious — took time to criticize Congress itself for failing to support ATF.
“I guess I have a slightly different take on this subject,” said Connolly, a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is investigating the controversial Fast and Furious operation. ” I don’t defend Fast and Furious and I don’t defend the actions of the U.S. Attorney at the time in Phoenix and I certainly believe it was a botched attempt that led to tragedy. Perhaps many tragedies.
“But there’s another part of the story I doubt very much the press will print…because it’s so much easier to print who screamed the loudest at ATF and that you got beat up.
“But what the press won’t proint tomorrow is the fact that Congress’s hands are hardly clean on this subject. We have done everyting to make sure that the F in ATF is nullified.”
“We have made sure that you haven’t got a permanent director for six years….What private company would think it’s ok to lack a permanent CEO for six years?
“We have done everything in our power to try to defang ATF to make sure that it’s toothless. We’ve done everything we can to fight your budget and reduce (it) so that you don’t have the resources to the do the job.
“Some how were’ going to stop the hemorrhaging of arms trafficking going into Mexico with that kind of paltry set of resources.”
