Eric Holder’s ‘Made-Up’ Defense

Sometimes politicians make the mistake of listening to their staff at their own peril. Eric Holder is making that mistake when it comes to some of the biggest scandals on his watch, such as the dismissal of the voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party. Holder’s interview with Charlie Savage of the New York Times shows that he has adopted a dug-in partisan position instead of a cautious and reasoned one.

For an attorney general facing increased scrutiny from Congress, this partisan approach is damaging to the Department, and probably to Holder’s tenure as attorney general.

In the interview, Savage asks Holder about the New Black Panther dismissal. Despite the fact that the New Black Panthters were captured on video with weapons and fascist-style uniforms at the entrance to a polling place, Holder said: “There is no there, there.” Really? Heady stuff from the attorney general.

When asked about the fact that Holder’s Civil Rights Division is hostile to racially equal enforcement of the law from top to bottom, Holder again deploys another cliché, calling it a “made up controversy.” Holder doubled down: “All I have on my side with regard to that is the facts and the law.”

Maybe Holder has the facts and law on his side in Oz, but not in the United States of America. Holder would be well advised to retreat from this inflexible position. Too many stories, too many incidents are known by too many people. But maybe Holder’s flying monkeys aren’t too eager to tell him there is substance to the allegations — after all, they are part of the problem. Nor can the flying monkeys keep the facts bottled up forever.

Or more likely, Holder knows full well the truth of the allegations, but agrees with the efforts of his flying monkeys to impose a vision of civil rights enforcement that doesn’t protect everyone, but only protects Holder’s political allies.

Holder is gambling that enough people will react with partisan loyalty to disbelieve the allegations of unequal law enforcement, and enough of the rest of the public can be tricked to buy peace. But truth has a funny way of floating to the surface, even if it takes time. That’s a gamble Holder doesn’t want to take. The bodies always surface.

Imagine how quickly the whole matter would go away if the Department confessed error. You’d never hear about the mess again. But a racialist ideology is a nasty and sticky thing, not easily escaped or excused by those who adopt it.

Congress also deserves answers regarding why Holder’s staff didn’t tell the truth in House and Senate Judiciary oversight proceedings, including in written responses.

Senators John Cornyn and Jeff Sessions have done a spectacular job holding Holder’s Justice Department accountable on a wide range of issues. With increased Republican numbers in Congress, Holder would do well to stop listening to his staff and figure out the truth on his own.

Some credit is due Charlie Savage of the New York Times for even pressing the attorney general on the New Black Panther dismissal. Bob Schieffer can’t say as much. Savage could bolster his credibility by making the same inquiries of this Justice Department as he did to the Bush DOJ. For starters, he could examine the preposterous hiring practices in the Civil Rights Division since Obama’s inauguration. The more time that passes without an inquiry from Savage and the New York Times, the more partisan his badgering of the Bush DOJ appears.

Holder, who claims to spend long nights at his kitchen table reviewing death penalty certifications, would do well to spend some time also reviewing the New Black Panther case files before he embarrasses himself again.

Holder might also inquire why congressmen threw King and Rosenbaum out of their offices during Black Panther briefings. The most important thing Holder might ponder at his kitchen table is why two successful and award-winning DOJ attorneys stuck their necks out to describe a culture of hostility to race neutral enforcement of civil rights laws. Even worse, numerous current DOJ attorneys corroborated the testimony to the Washington Post.

If Eric Holder wants to be taken seriously these last two years of the term, he would do well to find ways to engage in reasonable discourse and jettison the campaign-style rhetoric. More and more facts are going to emerge through congressional oversight about the DOJ’s rotted approach to enforcement of civil rights laws, and Holder will not be able to divert attention to these details with bluster.

Instead of circling partisan wagons, Holder would serve his own interests by boring deeper into the truth of the New Black Panther case. Instead of spouting spin crafted by underlings, he should learn the truth, especially when the underlings drafting his talking points are the same people who bungled the dismissal, like Steven Rosenbaum.

Rosenbaum has drafted error-filled responses to Congress, and others, even though his fingerprints are all over the mess. The role of Rosenbaum, King, and Karen Stevens (another partisan staffer) in developing false responses to Congress should be one additional line of inquiry by oversight committees. It will be hard for Holder to spend his dwindling political capital to defend the factual errors of these three.

Credible operations compartmentalize such things. The Bush DOJ didn’t have Monica Goodling drafting responses to Congress. The Holder DOJ has delegated the job of preparing talking points for the attorney general and drafting responses for Congress to the very people who caused the scandal in the first place. Add Holder’s New York Times interview to the list of examples where it seems amateurs are running the federal government.

J. Christian Adams is an election lawyer who served in the Voting Rights Section at the U.S. Department of Justice. His website is www.electionlawcenter.com.

AMERICA HATER SPEAKS OUT One of Holder's first perverse acts when Ohaha gave him the AG job was to publicly label the US a “nation of cowards” for avoiding frank conversations on race.....done with Ohaha's full approval.

March 15, 2010
Eric Holder: The Most Imbecilic, Politicized Attorney General in Decades
Flopping Aces.net
FR Posted by Starman417

EXCERPT He actually makes Nixon Attorney General John Mitchell look good by comparison! The Attorney General of the United States is the nation's top law enforcement officer. His job description does not include, and in many ways specifically forbids any overtly political action. But Obama's A.G. Holder mixes politics with a new low of imbecility not seen in the office. Here's the latest: [VIDEO AT SITE]

As Mark Steyn points out: Major Nidal Malik Hasan jumped on a table and gunned down his comrades while screaming, "Allahu Akbar," which Holder says is Arabic for "nothing to see here"...... The Times Square bomber, was upset by foreclosure proceedings on his house. Mortgage-related issues-----nothing to do with months of training at a Taliban camp in Waziristan.

Interesting that Holder can't see the hand of "radical Islam" in attacks on American soil but jumped to the conclusion that the Arizona immigration law might lead to "racial profiling" without ever reading the bill.....Holder repeatedly fanned the flames of racial and ethnic tension which is the exact opposite of what we would expect from the nation's chief law enforcement officer.

=======================================

Yawn......do me a favor. Wake me when Holder's gone and/or if Holder ever does something worthwhile----not including (a) mirandizing terriorists, and, (b) facilitating the pardon of the US' most flagrant tax cheat. Read on.

=======================================

November 23, 2008
Eric Holder Advocated Special Treatment for Fugitive Marc Rich for Over a Year
EXCERPTED FROM James Bamford, Author of "The Shadow Factory" (the CIA)

As a fugitive from US justice, billionaire commodities trader Marc Rich was one of 140 people Bill Clinton pardoned during his last hours as president. Rich's pardon was facilitated by then-Asst USAG Eric Holder who acted OUTSIDE of accepted procedures.

WHO IS MARC RICH? Rich, 66, was charged in 1982 with the largest tax-evasion scheme in US history, having evaded more than $48 million in income taxes. In 1983 Rich was indicted on 51 additional counts of racketeering and wire fraud. Rich's accomplice, Pincus Green won a presidential pardon, too. Rich also violated the US Trading with the Enemy Act by conducting business with Iran, even as US embassy staff were being held hostage.

In 1983, Rich fled to Switzerland, never serving a day in jail. After fleeing the United States, Rich renounced his American citizenship, became an Israeli citizen and a major benefactor of Jewish charitable organizations, giving nearly $80 million to Israeli hospitals, museums, orchestras, and universities. Rich later moved to Switzerland....and lives there today, insofar as we know.

This is the man to whom the exiting Clinton gave a midnight pardon, with the energetic assistance of Eric Holder.

IN DEPTH REPORT----filed November 23, 2008
Eric Holder Advocated the Marc Rich Special Treatment for Over a Year
EXCERPTED FROM James Bamford, Author of "The Shadow Factory" (the CIA)

Then-Asst Us Atty Eric Holder arranged for Marc Rich to bypass the Pardon Attorney and never told the US Attorney for Southern District of NY that there was a pardon application in the air.

Under the rules governing pardon petitions — rules that were approved by Mr. Holder’s office — the views of United States attorneys “are given considerable weight” because of the “valuable insights” they have. And yet Mr. Holder did not consult Mary Jo White, the United States attorney in New York and her colleagues about the Rich pardon petition; the latter group did not know of it until it had been granted.

NO ONE TOLD L/E ABOUT THE MARC RICH PARDON APPLICATION b/c if the pardon application had gone to the Office of Pardon Attorney as per normal pardon procedure, the Pardon Attorney would have, as per written procedure, solicited the opinion of the US Attorney's Office which originated the case.

The people in the United States attorney’s office in New York weren’t the only ones surprised by Mr. Holder’s decision. Deborah Smolover, his top deputy for pardon cases, did not find out about the pardon for Mr. Rich until the White House called to inform her of it after midnight on Jan. 20. (Mark Rich's accomplice, Mr. Pincus Green, also won a Clinton pardon).

(POSTER'S NOTE Other than keeping it all top secret, Mr Holder was extremely thorough---leading one to conclude that the payback to Mr Holder must have been considerable.)

After the pardon was signed, Mr. Quinn has testified, Mr. Holder called him to commend him on “a very good job.” Mr. Holder also asked Mr. Quinn to consider hiring two former aides, one of whom had already contacted Mr. Quinn on Jan. 2 “at Holder’s suggestion.” Go read the NYTimes piece. It's quite the smackdown of Ms. Townsend's fairy tale version.

How Eric Holder came to OK the Marc Rich pardon. Holder "got a last-minute phone call" from the Clinton White House to vet Rich. Via the Foley Square grapevine, the buzz was that Holder had deliberately hidden the pardon application from US Attorney's Office---So District of NY--- so they would not have an opportunity to protest. That's how far Holder's advocacy on behalf of Marc Rich actually went, when he was supposed to be working on behalf of the American people, .

A NY Times OpEd piece reported an extraordinarily well researched history of the Holder involvement in trying to get extra special treatment for Marc Rich. In 1999, Mr. Rich hired Jack Quinn, who had been Mr. Clinton’s White House counsel from 1995 to 1996, to help him advance his cause. The Rich team was still hoping to strike a deal with federal prosecutors in New York, who were in charge of the case. An e-mail message to Mr. Rich from one of his New York lawyers said that Mr. Quinn felt “he could convince Eric that it made sense to listen to the professors and that he could convince Eric to encourage Mary Jo to do the same.”

The “professors” were two tax experts paid more than $96,000 for a study based solely on statements provided them by the Rich legal team; “Mary Jo” was Mary Jo White, the United States attorney in New York.

Holder reportedly told Rich's attoney JackQuinn that SDNY's position was ridiculous--an interesting comment coming from within the Justice Department, to say the least. Mr. Holder told Mr. Quinn to write a letter to Ms. White with a copy to him, and promised to call her when it arrived. Mr. Holder then called Ms. White personally and, after that conversation, told Mr. Quinn she “didn’t sound like her guard was up.” But New York stood firm. New York's position was consistent with the written guidelines on pardons which do not allow pardons for people while they remain fugitives.

On Nov. 18, 2000, Mr. Quinn told Mr. Holder that Mr. Rich was going to go for a pardon, a step his team had been contemplating for months. After the conversation, Mr. Quinn told colleagues that Mr. Holder had advised him to “go straight to” the White House and that the “timing is good.”

Go directly to the White House? Bypass the DOJ Office of Pardon Attorney? “The greatest danger lies with the lawyers,” Rich's attorney Mr. Quinn wrote in an e-mail message to an aide to Mr. Rich, referring to the prosecutors in New York. “I have worked them hard and I am hopeful that E. Holder will be helpful to us.” Well it turns out that the prosecutors in NY never got a chance to be a danger.

"Sometimes politicians make the mistake of listening to their staff at their own peril. Eric Holder is making that mistake when it comes to some of the biggest scandals on his watch... {He} has adopted a dug-in partisan position instead of a cautious and reasoned one."

"Holder would do well to stop listening to his staff and figure out the truth on his own."

Astounding naivety! Holder KNOWS the truth.

Eric Holder is merely being Eric Holder - a lifelong hardcore leftwing & racist ideologue. He is not a man mislead by his staff but one that picked a staff of leftwing racist comrades who were equally willing to crush countless truths (and Constitutional principles) in support of their shared radical agenda.

Believing Holder, his boss Obama or their minions are to stupid or uninformed to know what their doing, is the height of self delusion. They are true-believers, who arrogantly & blatantly lie because it is required to advance their cause.

Think of the mobsters testifying during the hearings in the classic film "On the Waterfront" - where director Elia Kazan used mob thugs as a metaphor for Communist thugs!

Here's a bit from the courtroom scene we may see being repeated soon for the Obama gang:

                                BIG MAC {gang member}
		Sure we keep records!

				COUNSEL 
		Well, where are they?

				BIG MAC
			(indignantly)
		We was robbed last night and we can't find no books.

- CLOSER SHOT—COUNSEL AND BIG MAC -

				COUNSEL
		Doesn't it seem odd to you that five
		different waterfront locals were broken into last
		night and the only articles removed were financial
		records?

				BIG MAC
			(steadfastly)
		What do you mean, odd? We was robbed like I told you.

				COUNSEL
			(waving him aside)
		That's all. Next witness!

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