Can there possibly be any good explanation for the “Fast and Furious” scandal that’s just about to burst through the protective shield of the Beltway? If so, I’d love to hear it. From my New York Post column today:

The stench from Washington is getting stronger. Rep. Darrell Issa has called for a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of the festering mess known as Operation Fast and Furious.
Hatched somewhere in the bowels of the Justice Department, that misbegotten scheme had the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives deliberately allowing high-powered guns to “walk” from Arizona and elsewhere into Mexico: Our agents turned a blind eye toward the straw purchasers who were funneling the weapons to the drug cartels.
The (dumb) idea was to trace cross-border arms trafficking, and so prove the (false) claim that 90 percent of the guns seized in Mexican drug war zones originate in the US. (The real figure is closer to 17 percent.) But, as Issa’s Oversight and Government Reform committee continues its investigation, that pretension has evaporated — and a major international scandal has been born.

Hoo boy. The Mexicans are hopping mad, of course — Mexican attorney general Marisela Morales has called it a “betrayal” of her country. And Holder & Co. are stonewalling. But it looks to me that Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) is sitting in the catbird seat right now.

For the evidence strongly suggests that Fast and Furious was hatched in the Justice Department in an attempt to paint law-abiding American gun dealers and gun owners as renegades, to give the administration an excuse to crack down.
In other words, it was a deliberate provocation, undertaken without a thought for how it might affect our relations with Mexico — or how many people might die.
Issa says he hopes his committee will wrap up its investigation by the end of year, opening the way for a special prosecutor.

F&F, Solyndra, LightSquared… safe to say that things will get worse for the Obama administration before they get worse.