Basically, the fact that illegal guns repeated ended up in the possession of the Cartels had nothing to do with the ATF Phoenix Operation. Quite the contrary, this office worked incredibly hard to prevent that from happening.

In plain fact, they seized weapons whenever they could but were stymied again and again by prosecutors and weak laws, which continually led them to come up empty in bringing the gun-runners to justice.

It's a long article, but quickly the operation did it's work painstakingly and diligently and

By January 2010 the agents had identified 20 suspects who had paid some $350,000 in cash for more than 650 guns. According to Rep. Issa's congressional committee, Group VII had enough evidence to make arrests and close the case then.

Prosecutors: Transferring guns is legal in Arizona

This was not the view of federal prosecutors. In a meeting on Jan. 5, 2010, Emory Hurley, the assistant U.S. Attorney in Phoenix overseeing the Fast and Furious case, told the agents they lacked probable cause for arrests, according to ATF records. Hurley's judgment reflected accepted policy at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona. "[P]urchasing multiple long guns in Arizona is lawful," Patrick Cunningham, the U.S. Attorney's then–criminal chief in Arizona would later write. "Transferring them to another is lawful and even sale or barter of the guns to another is lawful unless the United States can prove by clear and convincing evidence that the firearm is intended to be used to commit a crime."

In fact, that particular Assistant AGA seemed to have little interest in prosecuting these cases, despite the best efforts of the Supervising Agent leading the operation. Guns known by agents to have been purchased for the Cartels could not be seized, much to their frustration without prosecutorial assent, and the AUSA "(Hurley) is an avid gun enthusiast, according to two law-enforcement sources who worked with him. One of those sources says he saw Hurley behind the counter at a gun show, helping a friend who is a weapons dealer."

The only instance of actual "gun-walking" involved a rogue agent with an apparent grudge against the man in charge of the operation.

It was in fact this agent, who quite falsely went Public with a concocted version of events, who "walked" the guns in his own operation, and failed to account properly for them. And it was one of those guns which ended up being the weapon that killed the Border Patrol Agent.

The "Fast and Furious Scandal" is non-existent. Blaming the operation in this instance is pretty much on par with calling Shirley Sherrod a racist based on the edited viewing of her remarks to her local NAACP.

As in that incident FOX "news" indignation was, and sorry for this one, fast and furious.

But this time, the facts are slower to emerge, and somewhat more complex.

And this time the noble Republican-controlled House of Representives, led by the "Honorable" Darrel Issa stepped in it.

Big Time.