The scandal known as “Fast and Furious” is rapidly becoming Obama’s Frankenstein monster.

For those unfamiliar with the Frankenstein literature, Wikipedia describes the work:

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel written by Mary Shelley about a creature produced by an unorthodox scientific experiment.

A trailer from the 1931 film is available here.

“Fast and Furious” is a contrived creation, unprecedented in US history. It provided guns to criminals who were allowed to cross the Mexican border to supply them to drug cartels. These guns were not tracked and are estimated to have been involved in the killing of 300 Mexican citizens. All of this was done without Mexico’s knowledge or involvement. One US border agent was killed in the line of duty by one of these weapons. The guns are still out there which means the devastation totals will continue to rise.

The program surely qualifies as “a creature produced by an unorthodox scientific experiment.” Like Dr. Frankenstein’s creation, it went horribly bad. Wikipedia provides some additional perspective on the novel:

In the novel, the monster is identified via words such as “creature,” “monster”, “fiend”, “wretch”, “vile insect”, “daemon”, and “it”. Speaking to Dr. Frankenstein, the monster refers to himself as “the Adam of your labors”, and elsewhere as someone who “would have” been “your Adam”, but is instead your “fallen angel.”

These terms are mostly applicable to the perfidy represented by “Fast and Furious?” Now we are left awaiting the resolution of this endeavor. What is not known is the paternity of this monster. It has been kept secret by the stonewalling of Attorney General Eric Holder.

Whether Obama “created” this monster in the Mary Shelley sense (i.e., was in on the planning aspects) or not is now irrelevant. He took ownership when he asserted Executive Privilege in order to block a Congressional investigation into the facts and particulars of the operation. Until now, the operation has been virtually ignored by the major media.  Obama’s ownership places it front and center for the American electorate. The media has been forced to cover what could be the biggest scandal in US history.

Obama’s assertion of Executive Privilege provided the change.  What had been treated as ”election-year politics” by the media suddenly took on the potential to be a “Watergate-with-deaths” scandal. The declaration vaulted the under-reported scandal to that of poster child for the corruption, disrespect for the law and lack of transparency of the Obama Administration.

To those who previously thought the commotion was only about election year politics, Jack Kelly provided his reaction (my emboldening):

There must be something really, really bad in the documents his attorney general is trying to conceal from Congress. If not, President Barack Obama has lost his mind.

With the honorable exceptions of Sharyl Attkisson of CBS and Richard Serrano of the Los Angeles Times, the major media have ignored for more than a year one of the biggest scandals in U.S. history. Now that the president has claimed executive privilege, they can ignore it no longer.

The only way to rationalize Obama’s assertion of Executive Privilege is contained in the first two sentences of Mr. Kelly’s quote. Obama has brought this issue front and center for the campaign. A Hill poll provides an early reading how the decision played with voters:

The Hill Poll found that likely voters disapproved by an almost 2-to-1 margin of Obama’s assertion of presidential power in the case. Overall, 56 percent of voters disapproved of his action, while only 29 percent approved.

Assuming Obama has not lost his mind, the information that is being stonewalled must be devastating. Does President Obama believe that this will go away after the election? It will not and his Executive Privilege claim is likely to cost him many votes in the coming election. Mr. Kelly explained it this way:

Mr. Obama and Mr. Holder doubtless hope the courts won’t throw out their bogus claim until after the election. What they should fear most is the court of public opinion. This had been under control. After the ATF whistleblowers testified last year, journalists should have been on this scandal like white on rice. But for many in the “mainstream” media, covering up for Democrats is more important than covering the news.

Obama has shown pathological tendencies before. Whether that is the case here or there is terrible information being withheld will eventually come out, whether it be before or after the election.

In viewing this particular event and the Obama Presidency in its totality, a return to Mary Shelley and a quote from her novel seems appropriate to describe Mr. Obama (my emboldening added):

Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow. Chapter 4, pg. 38

Dr. Frankenstein eventually understood his own transgressions and overreach, but by then it was too late. President Obama hubris and ego are likely to prevent him from ever doing so. As a result, the tragedy that is rapidly enveloping and becoming Obama plays out with the entire world watching.