Fast and Furious and the Hypocrisy On Both Sides

Yesterday afternoon, the first hearings were held on possible contempt charges against Attorney General Eric Holder over Operation Fast and Furious. Fast and Furious was alledgedly a program that went on inside the Department of Justice in which weapons were sold to Mexican Drug Cartels. This resulted in the death of many Mexicans and soured relations with the Mexican government. As a result of yesterday's hearings, Eric Holder is going to be charged with contempt of court, and rightly so. I have no doubt that he will be convicted. There is more to it, however. Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Darrell Issa revealed yesterday that they have evidence that the President used Executive Privilege to cover up this operation. For those of you that do not know, Executive Privilege is a tool used by the President to withhold information from the public. It is only used to maintain the privacy of the President's converstations, however. It was intended to be used very scarcely and justly, but it is used for much worse.

So what does this mean? As Judge Andrew Napolitano outlined on Fox News yesterday, it means one of two things. Either the President is incorrectly using the Executive Privilege to cover up these documents because he was not involved, or he is using it correctly because he was involved, which would go against the Attorney General's previous testimony. Either way, it is very likely that more charges will come in the future, either additional charges against the Attorney General, or charges against the President.

More than the evidence that our Presidents are going way beyond their power is an underlying theme that I have noticed. Accross the internet yesterday, liberals were hammering Darrell Issa for going against American interests, telling him he should instead be "doing his job." Meanwhile, conservatives were clamoring for justice, calling President Obama secretive and insider. Take a moment to remember back to the Bush Presidency, however, when it was the liberals calling for transparency in WMD research in Iraq and interrogation techniques used against terrorists, and the conservatives who were calling it a "witch hunt."

The underlying theme is clear and sad: hypocrisy in American politics. Most of America no longer stands on principals or even their beliefs. Instead, they sway with the wind of a party, taking whichever side that will protect the leader of their side, even if goes against their past activism. One of the reasons that I am so proud to be a libertarian is that liberty-minded individuals stick to their principals. We are always opposed to government abuse, meaning we are willing to take on any Republican, Democrat, or even a fellow libertarian/Libertarian if they have abused their power. If only the sheeple Obama-ites and Bush/Romney-ites could learn these lessons.