Davis’ support of the investigation stands in stark contrast to comments Schiff – his former partner against Gonzales – has made against House Republicans’ push to get to the bottom of Fast and Furious. “The Justice Department’s inspector general is doing an investigation, and members on both sides of the aisle agree that we need to get the facts,” Schiff said in a recent Los Angles Times article. “What I don’t want is the continual use of this investigation for political purposes that distract us from the need to curb the problem at hand and focus on solutions.”
Back in 2007, Rep. Darrell Issa, the House oversight committee’s then-ranking member and current chairman, criticized that push against Gonzales. During a press conference on Capitol Hill Tuesday, in response to MSNBC’s Luke Russert trying to make a comparison between Fast and Furious under Holder and the allegations of politically motivated firings under Gonzales, Issa said they’re two distinct cases.
“The question of firing of U.S. attorneys was vetted through a great many hearings, I participated in those hearings,” Issa said. “I think that the firing of political appointees certainly needs to be in bounds to be looked at but it’s a very different issue. Brian Terry is dead. He’s dead with weapons that were allowed to walk by our government and then, in fact, false statements were made about letting guns walk. Holding the people responsible for Brian Terry’s death within the Justice Department is critical to the family and to me. Holding responsible for false statements made to Congress that the American people relied on for eight months is also important. Those are the areas that we need to resolve.”
“I know you all realize that if it was your loved one who was gunned down in the streets or in the country in the Tucson, Arizona, area you would be equally upset,” Issa added. “So, I think getting answers to these questions in which a real law enforcement agent was killed with real guns is at least fairly unique in my [experience].”
Davis also said he thinks the DOJ’s priorities are out of order. He cited the recent Roger Clemens perjury case, which cost taxpayers more than $10 million, and the case against former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.
“I have no idea why we just spent millions of dollars trying to figure out if Roger Clemens ought to be in the Hall of Fame,” Davis said, sparking the room to fill with laughter. “Now, I happen to be a convicted Atlanta Braves baseball fan.”
“I love baseball and as a fan of baseball, I care a lot about whether Roger Clemens cheated,” Davis continued. “I do not understand why, when 10 baseball players went before Congress and claimed they didn’t use steroids, while one of them ends up getting prosecuted for false statements when frankly it probably looks like all of them probably didn’t tell the truth. The John Edwards case – I know opinions may be mixed on that – but I saw that as a dispute over campaign finance law. So, I don’t get some of the priorities.”
