Eric Holder has had it out for Sheriff Joe for years. The outspoken, hard-on-crime sheriff of Maricopa County has been the subject of years of investigation, and the DOJ has finally released its findings.

DOJ’s conclusion, however, is the exact opposite of ICE’s findings after it’s own lengthy investigation. As a matter of fact, in 2009, ICE said that Arpaio’s officers were highly professional and that the cases they referred to the federal immigration authorities were of “high quality.”

So when the facts on the found did not fit the progressive template of Eric Holder and his pet Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, they kept extending their investigation of Sheriff Joe. After three years of interviews, inspections, and dumpster-diving, the list of complaints comes off like a Politically Correct script:

The not-unexpected Justice Department report said investigators documented discriminatory policing practices including unlawful stops, detentions and arrests of Hispanics; unlawful retaliation against people exercising their First Amendment right to criticize the agency’s policies or practices, including its discriminatory treatment of Hispanics; and discriminatory jail practices against inmates with limited English proficiency by punishing them and denying them critical services.”

It would be interesting to read the specifics of these claims, and the corroborating proof. Any activist can make a claim of discrimination, but is showing proof and presenting accurate witnesses with matching testimony too much to ask?

This is the same DOJ that prosecuted and incarcerated Border Patrol agent Jesus Diaz for jerking a drug smugglers cuffs and pinning him to the ground when he tried to resist. This is the same DOJ that informed Officer Diaz that when he is released on probation he cannot go home because his wife is also an armed officer and he can’t be around weapons.

This is the same Justice Department that oversaw the Fast And Furious gun-running operation designed to create a flow of illegal guns from US gun stores to criminals in Mexico. Why would a federal agency create a system to arm Mexican drug cartels? To justify stricter gun control in the USA. All they got was two dead federal agents and a backlash in Congress.

The politicization of the DOJ is worse today than it was even under Janet Reno & Bill Clinton, and it is time for Congress to move to force out Eric Holder & Janet Napolitano, and hold their boss, Barak Obama, accountable for his failed oversight if his own appointees.

The Gall of Eric Holder to go after Joe Arpaio when Mr. Holder’s corrupt department is coming unravelled only shows how politically-driven he and his department are. If facts ever mattered in any investigation, then they should matter here. Joe Arpaio has been open and up-front about his policies, tactics, training, and enforcement of the laws on the books in his jurisdiction. He has never shied away from the truth of what he is doing because the federal government is derelict in its duties.

If the DOJ would have spent the last three years fighting illegal immigration instead of generating poo about Joe, then maybe a stupid idea like Operation Gunrunner wouldn’t have had the oxygen to survive the first meeting where it was discussed.

Arizona needs to support and back up Sheriff Arpaio or it will be running from federal mandates for the foreseeable future. It’s time to cut federal power back down to size in America, and a big part of that will be reigning in the Holders, Napolitanos, and the departments that they use as a club against their political opponents.