There are no coincidences in politics

Former Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis K. Burke, who locally oversaw the disastrous "Fast and Furious" gunwalking debacle and who resigned after it was revealed that he was the one who released documents in a failed attempt to smear ATF whistleblower John Dodson, was a lawyer for the Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committe back in 1994 and in that capacity apparently was a major player in getting the now-expired Clinton assault weapons ban through that body.

That really makes a whole lot of sense.  What better way of garnering support for a new (and presumably much stronger, not to mention permanent this time around) assault weapons ban through Congress than to have some political hack who's on board with a new President's gun control agenda override professional street-level ATF agents and responsible, law-abiding gun dealers to allow a whole bunch of U.S.-purchased weapons to be funneled to Mexico and then "conveniently" found in the hands of some bad guys down there?

"On. Nov. 24, 2010, just a few weeks before Terry was murdered, Burke--who had begun his career in public service working to enact an assault-weapons ban--had an email exchange with another U.S. attorney about an investigation he was working on that involved 'straw purchasing of assault weapons.'

'What a great investigation. What is the ETI (estimated time of indictment!)' U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan for the Western District of Washington said to Burke in an email.

Burke responded, 'Would love to chat. We are about to indict around [REDACTED] clowns for a Gun Trafficking to Mexico operation. It's a T-III investigation that we have been working w/ATF for a long time and IRS is all over some money laundering charges. It’s going to bring a lot of attention to straw purchasing of assault weapons. Some of the weapons bought by these clowns in Arizona have been directly traced to murders of elected officials in Mexico by the Cartels, so Katie-bar-the-door when we unveil this baby.'"

Katie-bar-the-door indeed.

Were it not for the deadly seriousness of this utter screwup, which cost the lives of Brian Terry, Jaime Zapata and countless innocent Mexican citizens, we would point out that Burke and his cohorts seem to be the only true "clowns" in this saga.