More Thoughts On Gun Walker And The BATF

In early 2009 the Obama administration was deemed invincible. The Democrats controlled the Presidency and both houses of Congress by huge majorities. Democratic operative James Carville had predicted the Republican party would be out of power for 40 years, a minority party, relegated to the deep south. In February the American Restoration and Reinvestment Act was passed and President Obama, to the delight of an adoring media, announced he had won and elections had consequences so things would be done his way. The Republican National Committee chairman, Michael Steel, felt compelled to apologies for statements made by Rush Limbaugh and no national Republican leader would dare criticize the new president. Sometime in this orgy of partisan dogmatism, in the heady days before there was a Tea Party, when almost daily the President appeared on television to drive down the stock market someone in the Justice Department conceived of an operation named "Gun Walker". Was the purpose of Gun Walker or as it was later called Fast and Furious a poorly conceived attempt to prevent the flow of weaponry into Mexico or a public relations assault on the second amendment of the constitution? An Investors Business Daily editorial suggests the latter.

One thing is provable. By mid April of 2009 President Obama, Secretary of State Hilliary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, and Mexican President Felipe Calderón were all spreading the 90% lie. That is 90% of all firearms seized in Mexico originated in the United States. Frequently but not always the assertion was made that the firearms were legally purchased in the US. See here and here. If one is charged with enforcing a law it is hard to explain why one would be gleeful when enforcement is shown to have failed yet we have this from The Oversight and Government Reform Committee's report."The agents within Group VII described (David)Voth’s reaction to all this gun violence in Mexico as “giddy.” Also from the same report page 35:

Since ATF supervisors regarded violence and deaths in Mexico as
inevitable collateral
damage, they were not overly concerned
about this effect of the Operation. Quite the opposite, they viewed the
appearance of Fast and Furious guns at Mexican crime scenes with satisfaction
because such appearances proved the connection between straw purchasers under surveillance and the DTOs. For example, Group VII
Supervisor David Voth eagerly reported how many weapons their “subjects”purchased and the immense caliber of some of these guns during the
month of March ....

Furthermore the report states that BATF agents were ordered to "stand down" when they attempted to enforce the law and they were threatened with disciplinary action if they refused. One must wonder if the deaths of Mexicans was inevitable for the operation to succeed was the purpose of the operation something other than to protect life.