Congressional Democrats are attempting to turn this illegal operation into an excuse to call for harsher gun restrictions within the United States, while Congressional Republicans led by Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) are seeking to get to the bottom of the scandal and find out who among the highest echelons of the Justice Department knew of Fast and Furious. Right now, President Obama is standing by his Attorney General, who has claimed that he neither knew of nor authorized the gunrunning scheme. ATF's Acting Director, Kenneth Mellon, is set to appear before a Senate committee investigating the issue later this month, and if it is anything like his previous comments to Congress, President Obama may very well have to start distancing himself from Eric Holder, whom Congressman Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley have accused of blocking their investigation.

As whistleblower Peter Forcelli, an ATF agent, said: "We weren't giving guns to people who are hunting bears. We were giving guns to people who were killing other humans." There really is little difference between our government giving weapons to cartels in the Americas and the Iranian government arming militants in the Middle East. The intentions may very well have been different, but the means and the actual ends were not. All involved must be held accountable, and Congress should not let up in its investigation, even in the midst of this debt crisis. I do not believe that President Obama had knowledge of the operation, but it very much seems like Eric Holder must have. The Attorney General should be subpoenaed and his records checked.