Why the silence from WA congressional delegation on Fast & Furious?

Operation Fast and Furious has been in the headlines for 11 months, yet to gauge the non-interest and non-response from members of Washington’s Congressional delegation, including Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, one would think the scandal to be non-existent.

Former King County Sheriff Dave Reichert, the career lawman-turned-8th District congressman, hasn’t said anything. Eastern Washington’s Doc Hastings is busy looking at the Endangered Species List. Democrat Gubernatorial hopeful Jay Inslee is probably trying to figure out a way to distance himself from the national financial debacle he helped Nancy Pelosi create before Republicans took control of the House of Representatives.

Norm Dicks? Zero.

Jim McDermott? Nada.

Rick Larson? Not a peep, so far as this column can tell.

Yet, as this column first reported, Fast and Furious has become a campaign issue in 2012, for Barack Obama and whoever the Republicans nominate to challenge him.

It should not be difficult for members of Washington’s soon-to-expand delegation to offer an opinion on this scandal. Congressmen in other states are not so reluctant. Texas Congressman Ted Poe, interviewed by this column, is getting hotter than the Llano Estacado in July.

“This is very serious and the Mexican government should be rightfully concerned. Americans should be rightfully concerned.”—Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX)

Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC), interviewed by this column, has not been shy about appearing on national television to rip what he calls stonewalling by the Justice Department and Attorney General Eric Holder.

But Washington’s delegation? Zip. What’s the matter, wolf got your tongue?

Congressman Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has invited Holder to appear before his committee on Jan. 24. The embattled attorney general has until next Tuesday to confirm that he will appear. Perhaps by then someone from the Evergreen State will take a public position on an operation that is known to have allowed at least 2,000 firearms to be moved into the hands of Mexican gangsters, and is directly linked to the slaying of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

Reichert may want to study up on this, because if the new map of his 8th District is adopted by the Redistricting Committee, he’s going to inherit a big chunk of east-central Washington fronting the Cascades, and whatever else that is, it’s gun country. Fast and Furious has lit gun owner fuses because many believe this was a scheme aimed at justifying tighter gun control laws.

Cantwell is up for re-election in 2012. Any Republican challenger may want to ask what she has done for gun owners, and to restore lost gun rights while serving in the Senate.

Likewise, someone may want to ask that of Dicks, whose blue collar district may have a lot of Union workers who traditionally vote Democrat, but a lot of those folks also carry NRA membership cards.

It is not too early for Washington voters to ask their congressional representatives just what they’ve done relating to gun rights, and especially relating to Fast and Furious.

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