The House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee today voted 23-17, strictly along party lines, to send a resolution to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over the Operation Fast and Furious gun-running controversy in Mexico.
It now moves to a full House vote, to be held at a to-be-determined date, likely next week. A full House vote is required to actually hold Holder in contempt of Congress, which is likely given Republican control of the House.
The vote followed a decision by Obama earlier in the day to invoke the rarely-used power of executive privilege to protect the confidentiality of the documents.
Comments rapidly grew more heated throughout the day, culminating in the vote.
But Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings said the committee's GOP chairman "had no interest" in resolving the issue and was trying to pick a fight.
Ed will explore Committee Chair Darrell Issa's unprecedented political hit job tonight at 8pET on The Ed Show on msnbc with Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Jonathan Alter, Bloomberg News!