Are contempt charges a game of Capitol Hill chicken?

Yesterday, the White House denounced the threat from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to vote on contempt charges against Attorney General Eric Holder as nothing more than election-year theatrics.  Jay Carney insisted that Holder and the Department of Justice have cooperated with Oversight:

“[Holder]takes the allegations that have been raised very seriously and that is why he asked the inspector general to investigate the matter,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters today. “It is also why you see the Department cooperating with congressional investigators, including producing 7,600 pages of documents and including testifying at hours and hours on congressional hearings.” …
“Given the Justice Department’s efforts to accommodate the committee investigation, I can only refer you to the Republican House Judiciary member who recently conceded that this investigation is, quote, politics,” Carney said today.

Do House Republicans really want a high-profile showdown for the sake of election-year politicking — or do they just want the documents?  Politico says that Republicans are on the level, and hope to avoid the contempt vote if possible:

House Republicans sounded like they were ready to go to war with the Obama administration Monday over the Fast and Furious program as they announced a committee vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.
But behind the scenes, House Republican leaders want nothing more than for the White House and Justice Department to fork over thousands of pages of documents related to the ill-fated gun-running program and avoid a dramatic — and potentially distracting — House floor showdown.
Even as Speaker John Boehner said Monday that the DOJ is “out of excuses,” his staff and the Justice Department are continuing informal discussions. Those talks haven’t yielded any progress, and Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa is planning his contempt vote for June 20 in committee.

Read more: http://hotair.com/archives/2012/06/12/are-contempt-charges-a-game-of-capitol-hill-chicken/