DOJ / Washington Post Argue that Issa Knew about Fast and Furious long before Holder did

In an apparent attempt by the Washington Post to run interference for the Department of Justice, the narrative in a story by Jerry Markon and Sari Horwitz provides the perfect example of what happens when you continue to change your story. In this case, the Post attempts to defend the DOJ by going after Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa. The new argument - apparently according to an anonymous DOJ source - is that the DOJ is innocent of any wrongdoing because of a briefing Issa attended in April 2010, at which Issa, the Post alleges, raised no objections.

Via WaPo:

A chief Republican critic of a controversial U.S. anti-gun-trafficking operation was briefed on ATF’s “Fast and Furious” program last year and did not express any opposition, sources familiar with the classified briefing said Tuesday.

Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.), who has repeatedly called for top Justice Department officials to be held accountable for the now-defunct operation, was given highly specific information about it at an April 2010 briefing, the sources said. Members of his staff also attended the session, which Issa and two other Republican congressmen had requested.

The Daily Caller spoke with Issa spokesman Fredrick Hill, who basically rejects the Post's versions out of hand:

Hill said there was a briefing that Issa attended back in April 2010 on a similar subject. “There were questions at the time about the number of U.S. weapons that were ending up at Mexican crime scenes,” he said. “Basically, [it was about] the efforts of the ATF to stop cartels from doing this.”

Did Project Gunrunner or Operation Fast and Furious come up at that briefing at all? Hill says “they certainly did not.”

Further bolstering Hill's account is the fact that none other than Attorney General himself, Eric Holder, testified under oath on May 3rd that he 'first heard about Fast and Furious over the last few weeks.' Think about that one. By implication, the DOJ - via the Washington Post - is claiming that Darrell Issa knew about Fast and Furious long before Holder did.

Here is the exchange between Issa and Holder on May 3rd. Issa asks Holder when he first learned of the operation at about the 1:15 mark.

AUDIO EXPLOSIVE: BREITBART EXPLAINS JOURNOLIST

David Weigel was a writer for the Washington Post blog and he was assigned to cover the conservative beat and report on it. Weigel also belonged to JourNolist, which is a group of 400 journalists who are supposed to be able to communicate with each other confidentially about issues and stories they cover. Any journalist communicating to the group is supposed to feel comfortable their words will not be made public.

Weigel learned the hard way that such assumptions are not warranted. JourNolist is headed by far left ideologue, Ezra Klein, who writes for the Post. In an interview with WIBC in Indianapolis, Andrew Breitbart explains that Weigel was outed because he didn't conform with the ideology of the 400. Breitbart is offering $100,000 to anyone who can deliver him the JourNoList archives.

WASHINGTON POST: RANGEL MUST GO

In January, the Washington Post named two managing editors. One of them for hard news and the other for lifestyle / features. Elizabeth Spayd, the new hard news editor was tasked, in part, with taking the paper in a bit of new direction. Speculation began that the Post would become more balanced. It's articles like this one about Charlie Rangel that lend credence to such claims.

QUOTING FROM PARAGRAPH #1:

FOR POLITICIANS with major bad news to release or to make public, there's no time like the dead of August to do it. The thinking goes that the public won't remember a thing come September. We hope Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) will have no such luck. His belated revelation of previously unreported income, property and bank accounts demands that he step aside as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Much like the man in charge of the Department that oversees the IRS (Geithner) needing to set a good example by paying his taxes, shouldn't the leader of the House Committee in charge of the money its responsible for spending set a good example as well?

I know, I'm being judgmental. Shame on me. What's interesting to see here though is that the Post is going after Rangel the way he should be gotten after.

Mr. Rangel's amended financial disclosure form, which exposes omissions from his 2002 through 2006 records, is a treasure trove of outrage. He neglected to report a checking account with the Congressional Federal Credit Union and one with Merrill Lynch, each valued between $250,000 and $500,000; the tens of thousands of dollars he's earning from dividends from a number of mutual funds and stocks; and the money made from the sale of a Harlem townhouse. As a result, Mr. Rangel's reported net worth doubled, from between $516,015 and $1,316,000 to between $1,028,024 and $2,495,000.

I'm not sure if the Post's circulation is increasing as a result of hiring Spayd but it sure seems like there may be some increased objectivity creeping into the paper.

Rangel may have been able to fall asleep on the beach reading the Post before but something tells me reading THIS ARTICLE won't allow him to.

Here's a link to the piece that announced the promotion of ELIZABETH SPAYD back in January.