Editorial: Don't hide 'Fast, Furious' facts

The Republican-dominated House of Representatives has been a hotbed of opposition to the Obama administration for a while now. So it would be easy to dismiss the conflict between a House committee and Attorney General Eric Holder over a bungled gun-trafficking investigation as more of the same old partisanship.

To a great extent, that's just what it is. But the administration's claim of executive privilege as a basis for withholding documents nonetheless makes the department -- and the White House -- look like they have something to hide. They ought to recognize that this isn't a stance they'll be able to maintain for long. And it's hard to see what legitimate reason they would have for trying.

At the heart of the issue is a runaway operation known as "Fast and Furious" conducted by the Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It was launched in 2009 to track guns illegally purchased in Arizona and moved to drug cartels in Mexico. The aim was to nab gun-ring leaders, but ATF lost track of roughly 2,000 weapons, and some were later found near the body of a Border Patrol agent after a 2010 shootout. It's since emerged that the Bush administration used similar tactics, but didn't lose track of as many guns.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been investigating. Its chairman is Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who in April preposterously called the Obama administration "the most corrupt government in history." The committee's probe, moreover, occurs against the backdrop of a kooky theory holding that the administration wants to fuel Mexican drug violence and then use this mayhem as a pretext for stricter gun control in this country. Issa himself has complained that, "Many of the people in the chain of Fast and Furious have a disregard for Second Amendment rights."

Those conspiracy theories are overshadowing the legitimate need of Congress to find out what went wrong with Fast and Furious, and whether the administration tried to cover up what happened.

In a Feb. 4, 2011 letter, the Justice Department told Congress that ATF makes "every effort" to bar illegal guns from reaching Mexico and hadn't knowingly allowed the sale of them to suspicious people -- assertions Justice later admitted were wrong. The Obama administration has since given Congress thousands of pre-Feb. 4 documents. Issa has also demanded internal administration emails after that date, and the White House has refused, claiming deliberations would be chilled. But it suggested it was open to negotiation. The House committee nonetheless recommended that Holder be held in contempt of Congress.

This isn't the first administration to invoke executive privilege; Bill Clinton used it 14 times, George Bush six. Nor is this the first time an official has faced contempt of Congress charges. But the level of partisanship is unusually high, and a presidential campaign is under way.

It's time for the two sides to do what prior Congresses and administrations have done in such circumstances, which is compromise. Whether Issa's probe is politically motivated or not, the administration will find it tough to convince the public of its openness without coughing up some more documents.