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When Is the Contempt Vote for Michele Leonhart?

Jun 21, 2012

Michelle Leonhart


Between selling guns to Mexican drug cartels, killing innocent civilians in Honduras, and having to suspend agents for cavorting with prostitutes, it’s been a rough year so far for the DEA. You can understand then why the House Judiciary Committee wanted to call in Michele Leonhart, head of the DEA, for an oversight hearing yesterday.

After a blistering round of questions (starting at 1:02:07) from Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN) on the agency’s bloated budget and the relative harms of marijuana, it was Congressman Jared Polis’ (D-CO) turn to try to get some sort of answers from Leonhart. Again, Leonhart dodged, ducked, and weaved, refusing to answer question after question from the Congressman. Watch for yourself. It really was a virtuoso performance in evasion techniques, particularly considering she works for an administration who recently claimed its drug policy is committed to “science over dogma, evidence over ideology.”

What I find interesting about all this is on the same day that Ms. Leonhart steadfastly refused to answer the questions of Congressmen Cohen and Polis, the House Oversight and Government Reform committee voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with its own investigation into the “Fast and Furious” scandal. My question is this: if it’s contempt for Holder to stonewall a congressional committee, shouldn’t Michele Leonhart be held in contempt for her performance yesterday?

Here is the most ridiculous part of Leonhart's testimony: