Governor Rick Perry put his name to an op-ed article in Tuesday’s Washington Times, calling for the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder over the FBI’s botched “Fast and Furious” gun tracking operation.

The 730-word piece recounts details of the controversial operation, which allowed firearms to “walk” into Mexico, and Perry asks, “What did [Holder] know, and when did he know it?” Holder said in May that he had only recently heard about the operation, while Perry’s op-ed recounts charges that he might have known about it as early as July 2010.

Either he is guilty of extraordinary bureaucratic incompetence or he is guilty of a cover-up meant to shield him from the consequences of an operation that has left at least one federal agent dead and continues to imperil many more.

Either way, it is high time for Mr. Holder to step down. If he refuses to resign, Mr. Obama must fire him immediately.”

Under the attorney general’s leadership, our nation’s top law enforcement agency proactively armed some of the most dangerous criminal organizations in North America, and at least one American is dead as a direct result. The damage done to Mr. Holder’s credibility is irreparable.

According to Matthew Boyle of the Daily Caller, Perry had previously declined to make such a strong statement. The conservative website had been asking the Perry campaign (and all other Republican presidential candidates) to comment about Fast and Furious for weeks. “It’s unclear how, or if, Perry would hold Holder accountable for Operation Fast and Furious,” Boyle wrote after Perry addressed the topic in New York on Friday—remarks that NBC News’ Carrie Dann, for one, characterized as “a blistering critique” of Holder.

Curiously, U.S. Senator John Cornyn, who grilled Holder hard earlier this month at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, was called out by Perry in his op-ed, even though Cornyn has yet to call for Holder’s head himself.

On Twitter, Austin-based Democratic political consultant Harold Cook didn’t think Perry’s demand would have much impact on its intended audience.

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Except of course, the article’s intended audience was not just Holder, but Republican presidential primary voters and readers of the traditionally right-leaning Washington Times.