GOP field largely silent on ‘Fast and Furious’

The issue over who authorized the gun-tracking operation to sell thousands of firearms to known and suspected straw buyers for Mexican drug cartels has come to a head this month as new internal Justice Department (DOJ) memos indicate Holder and senior department officials might have known about the controversial tactics as early as last year.

But amid calls on Capitol Hill for Holder’s resignation, Republican presidential front-runners are staying relatively mum on the issue. 

That could change on Tuesday night, when the Republican field gathers for a debate at Dartmouth College.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) told the website SunshineStateSarah.com last month that more people within the DOJ and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which directly oversaw the operation, should be fired.

The botched operation is grounds to seriously question President Obama’s ability to choose effective leaders, said Gingrich.

“It’s absurd,” he said of the operation. “I think people ought to be fired beyond the folks who have already lost their jobs.

“It makes you wonder about the common sense and the intelligence of people that Barack Obama appointed.” 

In June, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) blasted Holder and Obama for allowing the overarching Project Gun Runner to occur under their watch. 

But while Paul championed House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) investigation, he refrained from attacking the operation itself. Instead, he argued for an end to the ATF, an agency he says infringes on the rights guaranteed under the Second Amendment.