OK, put me down as someone rather puzzled at the decision of President Barack Obama to invoke “executive privilege” at the eleventh hour to prevent Attorney General and Obama flack Eric Holder from turning over to House committee investigating the so-called “Operation Fast and Furious” operation all the documents being requested. It’s a very bold (and, in my view, politically misguided) move on the President’s part, primarily because, by doing so, he takes an investigation that was pretty much flying under the political radar and elevates it to a bona fide legal and political hot potato when it never needed to be. Rather than a Holder scandal, it’s now an Obama scandal.

Just like the President’s decision last Friday to no longer enforce immigration laws for 800,00 so-called “anchor babies”, it just serves to reinforce the suspicion of many conservatives and independents that this White House is adrift and flailing around in its priorities and election strategy when – at least in my view – the only card they have left to play (and should be playing) is their support of bigger and more intrusive government and higher taxes on the rich in contrast to Mitt Romney’s view of smaller, less intrusive government and lower taxes. I mean, why hide your political beliefs and intentions for the next four years? While I and many others would vehemently disagree with such a platform, how do they know such a platform would be a losing proposition with the American electorate unless they try it?

But I digress…

The fact is, there can be only one of three reasons why President Obama went the executive privilege route in defense of Attorney General Holder:

1. There are documents that would bring great embarrassment to the White House, indicating that the Obama administration was much more involved in Fast and Furious than previously disclosed.

2. That the documents will show that Holder perjured himself repeatedly before Congress.

3. That the documents will show Holder to be a total incompetent.

…of course, there is a #4, which is, all of the above. Which, I happen to believe, is the most likely option at work here.

You’ll hear lots of talk in the coming days by Democrats calling this a witch hunt and Republicans voicing echoes of the Watergate scandal (which turned 40 years ago this week). But the truth is, Fast and Furious is far worse than anything Richard Nixon ever did. As a result of Fast and Furious you have one, perhaps two, border agents dead as well as hundreds of Mexican civilians as a result of crimes committed with guns that were allowed to “walk” across the border. It is a disgrace and something beyond reprehensible that anyone, let alone, Attorney General Holder (who, ultimately, is responsible for all Department of Justice programs instituted under his watch) would even conceive of such an ill-advised program, knowing that innocent people would be victimized and harmed by such a program.

You’ll also hear Democrats bemoan any contempt of Congress action against Holder as being politically motivated during an election year, but the fact is, this wouldn’t even have been an election year issue if Eric Holder’s Justice Department hadn’t stonewalled Darryl Issa’s investigation as long as it did. But, given the fact that everything the Obama administartion does is steeped in politics, it’s hard not to believe that this isn’t going down exactly as they planned once it was determined that Holder was as reckless and as incompetent as he appears to have been. Without any other card to play, the Obama administration chose to double down against the Republican-held Congress, but it’s hard to see (at least from this angle) the benefit of raising the visibility on yet another scandal that can only paint the Obama White House in a poor light during a hotly-contested re-election campaign.