What with all the other news absorbing our collective media attention it can be hard to remember some of the golden oldies from the Obama administration which seem to have been swept under the carpet. One of those was the infamous Fast and Furious government gun running scandal which wound up costing us in blood and treasure on the law enforcement front. What ever happened to the investigation over that debacle, anyway? As it turns out, not everyone has forgotten and we may be finding out some of the long hidden details in the near future as a federal judge has ordered the release of a trove of related emails. (NY Post)

The deadly-but-forgotten government gun-running scandal known as “Fast and Furious” has lain dormant for years, thanks to White House stonewalling and media compliance. But newly uncovered e-mails have reopened the case, exposing the anatomy of a coverup by an administration that promised to be the most transparent in history.

A federal judge has forced the release of more than 20,000 pages of emails and memos previously locked up under President Obama’s phony executive-privilege claim. A preliminary review shows top Obama officials deliberately obstructing congressional probes into the border gun-running operation…

But thanks to the court order, Justice has to cough up the “sensitive” documents. So far it’s produced 20,500 lightly redacted pages, though congressional investigators say they hardly cover all the internal department communications under subpoena. They maintain the administration continues to “withhold thousands of documents.”

The word “seedy” barely begins to describe the response from the White House and the Justice Department to this investigation. There has been stonewalling to an embarrassing degree, combined with claims of executive privilege and national security concerns. Eric Holder may have ridden off into the sunset, but it’s his former boss who truly holds responsibility for the lack of answers we’ve received.

Before anyone gets too excited however, let’s keep in mind that what the White House chooses to release is still pretty much up to them. The phrase “lightly redacted” as it’s used here could mean any number of things and we should have learned from the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails that if there are any aces in the hole, you’re still unlikely to ever see those cards flipped over. But unlike emails from the Secretary of State which may deal with foreign intelligence assets or espionage, it’s difficult to imagine what sort of information a program like this would need to keep under the cover years later. We’re not talking about the location of Iran’s nuclear reactors here. These are drug cartel leaders and gang members running cocaine and guns. If we’ve got some undercover agents who are still embedded with the cartels, then sure… keep those names and locations blacked out. But any information about decisions on our end and the way the guns wound up going missing shouldn’t represent a danger to anything other than a few political careers.

Will anything good turn up? I suppose it’s possible, but let’s just say I’m not holding my breath. We’ve been down this road before with these guys.