Why not? We pay for having a terrible federal government every day. Why should this be any different just because it involves lost rights instead of lost money?

Seriously, though, having Obama’s AG mumble about more gun regulation in front of a mic will accomplish two things. One: It’s bound to worry all sorts of swing-state gun owners in Pennsylvania and Ohio once word of his testimony gets around, which is all to the good for election day next year. Two: The more gun owners perk up about Holder’s testimony, the more public interest there’s bound to be in Fast & Furious. And hey — there actually is room for a smart new gun law here if Congress is willing to take it up. I call it the “DOJ Shouldn’t Walk Guns to Psychotic Mexican Drug Cartels Act of 2011.” The text reads, in full, “The DOJ shouldn’t walk guns to psychotic Mexican drug cartels.”

I’m thinking that would be a party-line vote in the House.

“Today, I would like to correct some of the inaccurate — and irresponsible — accusations surrounding Fast and Furious,” Holder’s prepared testimony reads. “Some of the overheated rhetoric might lead you to believe that this local, Arizona-based operation was somehow the cause of the epidemic of gun violence in Mexico. In fact, Fast and Furious was a flawed response to, not the cause of, the flow of illegal guns from the United States into Mexico.” In his testimony, Holder also advocates for new gun-control laws that he says would have halted, or at least prevented, Operation Fast and Furious. Holder echoes California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s comments from last week, when she argued that stricter gun laws would have stopped law enforcement agents from facilitating the sale of guns to Mexican drug cartels. “Unfortunately, earlier this year the House of Representatives actually voted to keep law enforcement in the dark when individuals purchase multiple semi-automatic rifles and shotguns in Southwest border gun shops,” Holder’s written testimony declares. “Providing law enforcement with the tools to detect and disrupt illegal gun trafficking is entirely consistent with the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens and it is critical to addressing the public safety crisis on the Southwest border.”

The idea that we need to regulate the wider population more tightly in order to prevent catastrophically moronic operations by the feds gives me a warm glow deep in my libertarian heart. And I do mean catastrophic: Watch this new clip from ace CBS reporter Sharyl Atkisson updating the death toll from gunwalking. It’s not just Brian Terry.

