Posted on 01/16/2009 2:23:56 PM PST by Congressman Billybob
I watched as much as I could tolerate of the confirmation hearing for Eric Holder to be Attorney General in the Obama Administration. He claimed that his participation in the last minute pardon of Marc Rich was “a mistake” and that he had “learned from it, and would be a better Attorney General because of it.”
The nature of his mistake was that he “did not know” the details of Marc Rich’s crimes and situation.
Let’s examine those claims.
The Department of Justice has a Pardons Attorney who is assigned the duty of examining each request for a pardon. That person is supposed to prepare a report stating the pros and cons of pardoning each particular person. That report is supposed to go to the President before he acts. Included in that report should be the conclusions and recommendations of the lead prosecutors on the case.
That was not done with Marc Rich. Eric Holder short-circuited the process. He deliberately kept the Pardon Attorney out of the loop. He did not inform the lead prosecutor that a pardon for Marc Rich was underway.
Unless Eric Holder was breathtakingly incompetent, he had to know what the charges were against Rich. It was not just tax evasion in the millions of dollars. It was also trading with the enemy. Rich broke the embargo that the US had officially established on oil being sold by Saddam Hussein in Iraq. And lastly, Rich had fled the US to avoid prosecution. He was a fugitive from justice,
It is normal practice for a pardon to state what the person is being pardoned for, So, the nominee for Attorney General HAD to know this much, which is more than he admitted in his sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week.
Shift gears to the President that then-Assistant Attorney General Holder was then reporting to. President Clinton had received a half million dollar contribution to his Presidential Library Foundation from his “friend” Denise Rich who just happened to be Marc Rich’s wife.
Why would Eric Holder have kept this pardon out of the normal process and in his hands only? The most logical reason is that he was instructed by his boss, President Clinton, that Clinton wanted to grant this pardon, and Holder’s job was to grease the skids to get that result.
Was this an isolated case? No.
The pardon of the FALN (Puerto Rican) terrorists who conducted a series of sometimes fatal bombings was similar, and equally shepherded through the process by Eric Holder. The terrorists had not even asked for pardons. Holder claimed that they had “repented” and been “rehabilitated.” Some of them signed documents claiming that but they repudiated those documents as soon as they were released. Some did not sign, but still were pardoned and released. The relatives of those killed by the bombs were not consulted.
What was the Clinton interest in those pardons? Bill Clinton’s wife Hillary was then preparing to run for the Senate in New York, which has a large Puerto Rican community. So the Rich pardon was done for cash money. The FALN pardon was done for power. In practical politics where ethics do not matter, money and power are interchangeable.
Now, let’s take a dip in history. Three prior Presidential Administrations were rife with corruption. In two of these three the Attorneys General went to jail for their own involvement in the corruption. Those occurred under Presidents Harding, Nixon, and Clinton. Any administration which intends to skate close to, or beyond the edge of the law, will be aided by having a pliant Attorney General who will do whatever the President wants, for better or worse.
Not only should Eric Holder not be confirmed as Attorney General, the very nomination of such a defective candidate reflects badly on Barack Obama himself. And yet, best information is that Holder will be confirmed. That will reflect badly on the Senators who vote in favor of confirmation.
As Bette Davis said in All About Eve, “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” Given the beginning of this Administration, including the nomination of a man to oversee the IRS, who didn’t pay his taxes, we may be in for four full years of anything goes.
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About the Author: John Armor practiced law in the Supreme Court for 33 years. He now lives on the Eastern Continental Divide in the Blue Ridge of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
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John / Billybob
Crook, Liar..............Sounds like Zero
Eric Holder, Clinton, Wright’s BL(’Black Liberation’) “church” and the pardons of the PR Marxist terror group FALN:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2165024/posts
(Eric) Holder’s role in the pardons of BLA(Black Liberation Army) comrades/Weather Underground members, (Susan)Rosenberg and (Linda)Evans:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2165052/posts
SEN. COBURN: You’re making -- you’re making my 2nd Amendment crowd really nervous. They want you to hear you say yeah, they have that right and they ought to be able to maintain that right. That’s what they want to hear you say.
MR. HOLDER: And I guess what I’m saying to you -- that same crowd is that I have no intention -- this administration has no intention of doing anything that would affect a state’s regulation of firearms, who can carry a firearm, under what circumstances. There’s nothing that we have discussed -- nothing that is in planning, nothing that I can imagine that we’re going to be doing in that regard.
You'll notice, of course, that Holder says he has no intention...they haven't discussed...nothing is being planned...he can't imagine they're going to do anything in that regard.
He DOES NOT say that HE WON'T.
Only the disreputable need apply.
The man is the least qualified and the most corrupt person to ever enter the White House as President.
The Dems all complained that Alberto Gonzales did not operate Justice independently enough from the White House. But they are silent about a guy who rammed through two of the most objectionalbe pardons of all time at the bequest of the President at the time.
Just goes to show that Dem political morality is purely situational.
Why don’t the Republicans vote this man down. I’m so sick of them not standing up to anything. Why must we put up with criminals running our country??
Ok, Eric, let's say for argument's sake that waterboarding is torture. Then, according to the Geneva Convention's Article Three, we should have shot the bastards. Which would YOU have preferred?
I come down on the side of shooting the bastards, but that's just me.
5.56mm
I certainly hope so. But I cannot figure out how. The Office of the Presidency was bought by powerful liberal people and the masses believed Magic Obama. Behind Obama is the most powerful group of lying criminals this Country has ever seen. This powerful cartel literally controls most of what the public sees. Obama is a cult leader and cult followers are unable to process intelligent thought of how they are controlled. Could add more, but self destruction is impossible, and those of us that have resisted will be the only ones that understand this destructive force and we will just have to put up with it for many years.
A secy of Treasury who doesn’t pay taxes, an AG who pardons criminals, a Secy of STate who takes kickbacks to her husbands “library”,,how much worse can it get?
Don't ask. Jamie Gorelick is still out there waiting for a job in the new Administration.
I dread when the time comes that the people who think Obama is going to pay their mortgages and fill their tanks find out that he lied to them - a lie of omission to be sure, but he knew what sort of ideas he was giving them. By that time, the novelty of having a “brothuh” as President will have worn pretty thin.
Good article. As usual.
BTTT
The Republicans seem to lack the backbone to fight for what's right, at least in public. The “spirit” of bipartisanship and civility is only being practiced on on side. If there are different sides. The only solution is to elect strong, principled conservatives to Congress and Senate. This may require them running as a third party. I realize the consequences but am willing to risk a larger Dem majority now for a more secure future. BTW, I am pretty happy with my senators, Shelby and Sessions. Did they have any role in the Holder nomination? Or did they just lay down and take it up the a** too?
Oh...wait...
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