If you need another reason to get rid of Barack Obama, here it is -- another example of lawlessness.

The Justice Department moved Friday to shield Attorney General Eric Holder from prosecution after the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress.

The contempt vote technically opened the door for the House to call on the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia to bring the case before a grand jury. But because U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen works for Holder and because President Obama has already asserted executive privilege over the documents in question, some expected Holder’s Justice Department to balk.

Deputy Attorney General James Cole confirmed in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner that the department in fact would not pursue prosecution. The attorney general’s withholding of documents pertaining to Operation Fast and Furious, he wrote, “does not constitute a crime.”

“Therefore the department will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the attorney general,” Cole wrote, in the letter obtained by Fox News.

Interesting -- Holder's subordinates get to make the decision about prosecuting their boss for official misconduct regarding the operations of the department for which they work. The conflict of interest here is mind boggling. That Holder's subordinates are complying without multiple resignations accompanied by statements of outrage tells us all we need to know about the ethical standards of the Obama Regime -- remember, even Nixon officials resigned rather than help obstruct justice.

A bipartisan majority in the House cited Holder for contempt. They also authorized the pursuit of civil contempt by a larger bipartisan majority. It is time to authorize the use of the inherent contempt power to direct the arrest and imprisonment of Eric Holder -- and perhaps some of his subordinates -- until the documents in related to Operation Fast & Furious are released.

And it may be time to consider impeachment -- not just of Eric Holder, but also of Barack Obama.