In case you missed this, we had a John Mitchell/Joe McCarthy exchange yesterday in the Fast and Furious hearings.

Specifically, Rep. Darrell Issa demanded Holder provide the committee with documentation it’s asking for and Holder refused. Issa remarked that “Contempt of Congress” might well enter the picture if a little more cooperation isn’t forthcoming, and that Holder is becoming reminiscent of John Mitchell, who was Nixon’s attorney general during Watergate who attempted to stonewall Congress.

Holder’s response to which was to ask the famous lefty question “Have you no shame?” which was first used in the McCarthy hearings.

The video…

Fast and Furious hearing 12/8/11 from Water Cooler on Vimeo.

(Link in case the embed doesn’t load)

UPDATE: Somebody yanked the video down. A transcript of sorts, courtesy of Kerry Picket of the Washington Times…

Rep. Issa asked AG Holder if he was aware that he would be held in contempt of Congress if Mr. Holder did not provide a constitutional exemption for holding back logs and other documentation Mr. Issa has been asking for.

“Are you aware that you are in fact, by doing so, in the fact that we already issued from the oversight committee a subpoenea, you are standing in contempt of Congress unless you have a valid reason that you express it,” Issa said.  “That you provide logs which you have refused to have provide for the other information. Otherwise, you leave the committee no choice but to seek contempt for your failure to deliver or to cite a Constitutional exemption.”

Holder responded, “We will respond in a way that is consistent with the way in which the Justice Department has always responded to those kinds of…”

Issa interrupted saying, “That’s not the question Mr. Attorney General.”

When order was restored by Chairman Lamar Smith, Texas Republican, Holder continued, “…will respond in a way that other Attorneys General have…other justices have…”

At this point things became particularly intense between Mr. Issa and Mr. Holder. Issa reached back to a Watergate era reference comparing AG Holder to President Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell, who was sentenced to 19 months in prison due to his involvement with the Watergate scandal.

“John Mitchell responded that way too,” said Rep. Issa to Holder.

Holder asked Chairman Smith if the John Mitchell reference “was called for.” Holder then proceeded to compare Congressman Issa to the late Senator Joseph McCarthy, the politician famous for heading up the 1950’s hearings that sought to investigate communist infiltration in the U.S. government.

“The reference to John Mitchell. Let’s think about that,” said AG Holder. “Think about that. At some point, you know as they said at the McCarthy hearings, ‘Have you no shame?’”

And of course the reference was to this…

Yeah, Holder screwed the reference up. Which is nothing new; you’d be hard-pressed to come up with anything this guy has gotten right since he took this job.

But it’s instructive that an incompetently lefty, caught red-handed in a major scandal, would reflexively attempt to paint his accusers as Joe McCarthy.

One-trick pony.

We sure don’t want Holder going anywhere, though. He’s the single greatest albatross around Obama’s neck. Let him stick around until Election Day.