[Hardcase]

I was not surprised to hear AG Holder essentially say that all of the problems at ATF were because the agency was not adequately funded. Disappointed, but not surprised.

He also very clumsily (at least for an attorney) danced around the Bureau's responsibility in the Terry case. I think that it's obvious that the ATF was not "directly" responsible for his death, but it certainly shares a significant indirect responsibility.

I also was not surprised that some members of the Senate committee wanted to bring up the Bush-era gun-walking operation. I assume that the connection is that if a Republican administration walked guns, then the Republicans shouldn't be upset if a Democratic administration did the same thing. Sort of a red herring, I guess, since no administration ought to do it. Seems to me that the only point of bringing that operation up would be to ask why the ATF thought that doing the same thing, only bigger and with less control, would lead to better results.

Oh, and the 70% number popped up again.