An Open Question for Elijah Cummings and NBC's Brian Williams

During the course of the House investigation into Operation Fast and Furious, Attorney General Eric Holder has been forced to retract two significant pieces of evidence he submitted as part of his sworn testimony.

After nearly a year of stonewalling, Holder was forced to retract a statement describing the Justice Department's knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious, which left more than 200 dead including two U.S. law enforcement agents.

And, within the last several days, he was forced to retract a sworn statement that a prior, Bush-era A.G. had been cognizant of "gun walking". That, too, was a blatant lie.

The Holder Justice Department has now retracted multiple statements from the record, admissions that it presented sworn testimony containing materially false and misleading information to Congress.

And those activities are topped off by Holder's refusal to turn over documents that likely describe his attempts to cover up the DOJ's knowledge of the operation and the almost certain involvement of the White House with it.

And so, last night, after President Obama claimed Executive Privilege to shield Holder from prosecution, NBC's Brian Williams began his late-to-the-party coverage of the murderous operation with: "If you’re not following the complexities of Fast & Furious, it looks like just more of our broken politics."

Even more disgracefully, Rep. Elijah Cummings -- the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee -- excused Holder's bloody operation and cover-up as follows: "This is a situation that could have been avoided if the Republicans could have been a little bit reasonable."

In short, Holder has repeatedly presented false and misleading information to Congress under oath regarding his operation that killed 200 or more, including U.S. law enforcement agents Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata.

My question for Cummings and Williams: Can we assume you support the Attorney General of the United States lying to Congress -- repeatedly -- without penalty?