WASHINGTON - House Republicans on Thursday again took aim at one of their favorite targets, Attorney General Eric Holder, charging him with politicized decision-making on state voter ID laws and Operation Fast and Furious. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, committee chairman, cited what he said were numerous examples of the Justice Department flouting the law, including its refusal to defend the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act denying federal benefits to spouses in same-sex marriages. [...] Holder has appeared six times before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to answer questions about Operation Fast and Furious, in which Phoenix-based ATF agents used watch-and-wait tactics on cartel-linked gun purchasers but then lost track of over 2,000 weapons that slipped into Mexico. Holder insisted department officials had responded to subpoenas and turned over 7,600 pages of documents, and that senior officials had read only summaries of wiretap applications, which did not mention "gunwalking" - observing weapons trafficking in order to catch cartel higher-ups. Citing comments last week by Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan that Fast and Furious had "poisoned" Mexicans' views of the U.S., Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, asked Holder: "What would America's reaction be if the roles were completely reversed, if our neighbors, Mexico or Canada, facilitated the smuggling of automatic weapons into our country?" Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., criticized Holder for Justice Department objections to laws in Texas and other mostly Southern states that require voters to produce a photo ID in order to cast ballots.
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