Posted on 11/19/2008 9:29:15 AM PST by yoe
That didnt take long.
As we observed throughout the campaign, Barack Obama gave indications that his election would mean a return to the September 10 mentality, a national-security outlook marked prominently by its lack of seriousness about the terrorist threat. In choosing Eric Holder to be his attorney general, President-Elect Obama has taken a step toward confirming those misgivings.
Holder was the Clinton administrations last deputy attorney general, succeeding Jamie Gorelick in 1997 under Janet Reno. That appointment marked the final elevation in a series of Clinton-era promotions that punctuate his résumé. Holders rise, like Obamas own, is of symbolic significance, as he now has been nominated to be the nations first black attorney general. Symbolism, however, cannot camouflage the fact that Holder is a conventional, check-the-boxes creature of the Left.
He is convinced justice in America needs to be established rather than enforced; hes excited about hate crimes and enthusiastic about the constitutionally dubious Violence Against Women Act; hes a supporter of affirmative action and a practitioner of the statistical voodoo that makes it possible to burden police departments with accusations of racial profiling and the states with charges of racially skewed death-penalty enforcement; hes more likely to be animated by a touchy-feely Reno-esque agenda than traditional enforcement against crimes; hes in favor of ending the detentions of enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay and favors income redistribution to address the supposed root causes of crime.
In any other time, Holder would simply be an uninspired choice. But these are not ordinary times we face a serious, persistent threat from Islamist terrorists. At the same time, Democrats have expressed outrage over both the alleged politicization of the Justice Department and the reckless disregard of its storied traditions. For these times, it is difficult to imagine a worse choice for AG than Eric Holder.
Much has been made, and appropriately so, of Holders untoward performance in the final corrupt act of the Clinton administration: the pardons issued in the departing presidents final hours. Of these, most notorious is the case of Marc Rich, an unrepentant fugitive wanted on extensive fraud, racketeering, and trading-with-the-enemy charges but granted a pardon nonetheless thanks to the intercession of his ex-wife, a generous donor to Clintons library and legal-defense fund.
Holders role was aptly described as unconscionable by a congressional committee. He steered Richs allies to retain the influential former White House counsel Jack Quinn (Holder later conceded he hoped Quinn would help him become attorney general in a Gore administration); he helped Quinn directly lobby Clinton, doing an end-run around the standard pardon process (including DOJs pardon attorney); and he kept the deliberations hidden from the district U.S. attorney and investigative agencies prosecuting Rich so they couldnt learn about the pardon application and register their objections.
Theres more. In 1999, over the objections of the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, and prosecuting attorneys, Holder supported Clintons commutation of the sentences of 16 FALN conspirators. These pardons of terrorists who even Holder has conceded had not expressed any remorse were issued in the months after al-Qaedas 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, when the Clinton administration was pretending to be the scourge of terrorism. The commutations were nakedly political, obviously designed by Clinton to assist his wifes impending Senate campaign by appealing to New Yorks substantial Puerto Rican vote.
Equally noxious were the stealthy pardons of Susan Rosenberg and Linda Evans Weather Underground terrorists associated with Obamas friends Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn issued on the same day as the Rich pardon. Rosenberg and Evans had been serving decades-long sentences for bombings targeting American government facilities. With Holder again helping to circumvent the pardon process and to evade objections from prosecutors, the terrorists jail terms were commuted just weeks after the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole.
Under Holders stewardship, moreover, the Justice Department chose, in the Dickerson case, to oppose its own prosecutors and seek reversal of the conviction of a bank robber whose voluntary confession had been elicited without Miranda warnings. Taking the Justice Department's signal, the Supreme Court overruled the lower courts and vacated the conviction, upending 30 years of precedent which had held that Miranda was not part of the core Fifth Amendment guarantee. Thanks to this ruling, rendered in the comfort of pre-9/11 complacence, terrorists tried in civilian courts which is where Obama and Holder want them to be tried will enjoy a powerful argument against the admission of critical confession evidence.
To be blunt, Holder is a terrible selection. If theres any Obama cabinet nomination that Republicans feel moved to oppose, this should be it.
Much more; read and bookmark.....
Bump
Wasn’t he also knee deep in the Gestapo style raid on Elian Gonzalez’s family home in Miami? Frankly I find that even more disturbing?
Wasn’t that Greg Craig???
I remember during the Clinton Admin. we dissected Holder pretty well. Too bad more of those threads aren’t around.
Here’s the money shot:
>>>Equally noxious were the stealthy pardons of Susan Rosenberg and Linda Evans Weather Underground terrorists associated with Obamas friends Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn issued on the same day as the Rich pardon. Rosenberg and Evans had been serving decades-long sentences for bombings targeting American government facilities.<<<
Billie didn’t mention this at his book signing, did he?
“He is convinced justice in America needs to be established rather than enforced; hes excited about hate crimes and enthusiastic about the constitutionally dubious Violence Against Women Act; hes a supporter of affirmative action and a practitioner of the statistical voodoo that makes it possible to burden police departments with accusations of racial profiling and the states with charges of racially skewed death-penalty enforcement; hes more likely to be animated by a touchy-feely Reno-esque agenda than traditional enforcement against crimes; hes in favor of ending the detentions of enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay and favors income redistribution to address the supposed root causes of crime.”
Wow, maybe all those black people who said they were going to get to do anything they wanted once Obama got in were right!
And I do not mean that racially because there are ALOT of normal, regular black people. I am only speaking of the ones who were saying that on the news and in my kids’ school.
http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/
Get ‘em with the Constitution and The Federalist Papers.
Quote the quotes and watch the jaws drop.
You must expecdt, however, that any GOP resistance to Holder will be trumpeted as extreme racism.
Holder did bring Dan Rostenkowski to trial, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee under Clinton. I can think of worse for that job..........
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