AUSTIN - In an another slap at the Obama administration as he prepares for tonight's Republican debate in Washington, D.C., Gov. Rick Perry is calling for the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder over the department's actions in the "Fast and Furious" arms-trafficking operation.
"It is time for Mr. Holder to go," Perry wrote in an op-ed the Washington Times, demanding that President Obama fire the nation's highest law enforcement officer if he doesn't resign voluntarily.The operation has come under sharp attack by congressional Republicans, including Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. Agents lost track of AK-47s and hundreds of other guns as part of a sting operation designed to track the flow of U.S.-purchased weapons to Mexican criminals.Weapons from the "gun-walking" probe were later recovered at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States, according to investigators. Two guns believed to be linked to Operation Fast and Furious were found at the scene of a shootout in Arizona that resulted in the death of Brian Terry, a Customs and Border Protection agent, the AP reported.Perry will join other Republican presidential contenders at a CNN debate at 7 tonight in Washington, D.C. Although the debate will focus on foreign policy and national security, the nation's economic troubles are almost certain to come up after the congressional super-committee's failure to select $1.2 trillion in cuts for the next decade.The Texas governor, who has made border security a key element of his campaign, said he wants to hold the attorney general and the Obama administration accountable for what he called "a horribly ill-conceived Justice Department operation that went tragically wrong.""Ever since the Department of Justice's gun-running operation known as Fast and Furious became public, the Obama administration's response has been slow and infuriating," said Perry. "Under the attorney general's leadership, our nation's top law enforcement agency proactively armed some of the most dangerous criminal organizations in North America, and at least one American is dead as a direct result. The damage done to Mr. Holder's credibility is irreparable."Holder told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this month that it would be unfair to link the agent's death to the Fast and Furious Operation. But he said the department is taking steps to insure the operation's mistakes are never repeated."America simply cannot tolerate an attorney general who arms the very criminals he is supposed to protect us from," Perry said, contending that Mexican drug cartels represent a "clear and present danger" to the United States. "Nor can we tolerate a president who lacks the courage to take decisive action in restoring justice to the Department of Justice."Dave Montgomery, 512-476-4294
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