Posted on 01/21/2009 3:16:55 PM PST by fiodora
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a brief meeting this afternoon in which Republicans forced a one-week delay in a committee vote on the nomination of Eric Holder to be attorney general. Chairman Patrick Leahy wanted to hold the vote today, but ranking Republican Arlen Specter complained that members had not had enough time to question Holder at hearings last week. Under the committee's rules, the minority can be granted a one-week delay in the vote.
Specter said he had held a meeting of committee Republicans this morning, "and there was a unanimous view that there has been insufficient time to question Mr. Holder." Specter complained that Leahy had rushed the question period last week and allowed less time for Republicans to question Holder than Democrats had been given to question Bush administration nominees. Specter also recalled that a few years ago he had at least one heated discussion with George W. Bush, when the then-president was trying to pressure Specter to speed up hearings for John Roberts and Samuel Alito. Specter said he declined both of Bush's requests, implying that Leahy should resist pressure from the Obama White House. In the end, an "extremely disappointed" Leahy announced that the vote will be held next week.
Specter is still a RINO and not to be trusted.
Eric H. Holder Jr. is facing increasing resistance to his bid to become the next attorney general, emerging from President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet nominees as the prime target of Senate Republicans, both because of troubling episodes during his service in the Clinton administration and because of the sensitivity of the post overseeing the Justice Department. With two days of confirmation hearings set to begin Thursday, Holder must demonstrate his independence from Obama to a vocal chorus of GOP lawmakers who want to warn the incoming president that he should not veer too far to the left on national security and judicial nominations. The attorney general plays a pivotal role in those issues, which are of intense concern to conservatives... --snip--
Last year, Holder and other former Justice Department officials from Democratic administrations filed a friend of the court brief in a landmark D.C. gun ownership case, arguing that the Second Amendment gives citizens a "collective right" to bear arms rather than individual ownership rights. The Supreme Court last year ruled in the case, in favor of individual rights. Holder's views are relevant because the court's ruling probably will lead to challenges of other gun control laws in which the Justice Department will have an interest.
Republicans may try to point out inconsistencies in Holder's approach to national security. In the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he gave interviews in which he appeared to leave room for extended detention of terrorism suspects without charging them with crimes. But in recent years, Holder has been more critical of Bush administration policies on detention and interrogation, saying the government's tactics have harmed international relations and violated civil liberties... (Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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A Public Servant’s Private Stint Is at Issue
The New York Times ^ | January 10, 2009 | ERIC LICHTBLAU
FR Posted on Sunday, January 11, 2009 1:36:45 AM by george76
Chiquita Fruit Co was facing the prospect of federal charges for paying protection money to Colombian terrorists to safeguard its banana crops, and the company needed help. It turned to Eric H. Holder Jr., an elite Washington lawyer well versed in the ways of the Justice Department.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is to begin confirmation hearings on Mr. Holder on Thursday... When the National Football League was facing a legal and public-relations disaster in 2007 over a dogfighting scandal involving the Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, it turned to Mr. Holder to help navigate the maelstrom and represent the league.
The pharmaceutical giant Merck tapped him as its lawyer in a Medicaid overbilling case that ended in a $671 million civil settlement. And Rod R. Blagojevich, the now-impeached governor of Illinois, picked him, albeit briefly, to investigate for the state a controversy over a casino development and its possible ties to organized crime.
Already, Mr. Holder’s brief association with Mr. Blagojevich has drawn scrutiny ... Holder ... has entered a group of A-list lawyers in the capital who reportedly earn $800 to $1,000 an hour.
Last spring, when Mr. Holder was traveling extensively to campaign for Mr. Obama, he joked to The American Lawyer magazine, “I hope the management committee is going to be real understanding when they see my billable hours this year.” (Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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How Obama's would-be attorney general, Eric Holder, won the release of 16 FALN terrorists as Clinton's Deputy AG
Let's not forget the raison d'etre for the pardoning of 16 Puerto Rican FALN terrorists:
Hillary was then-running for office in NY and she needed the votes of hyphenates to win. She and Bill apparently conducted surveillance on the NY electorate and "profiled" the hyphenated groups she needed to win. They then went down the list and got Holder to facilitate pardons to individual connected with hyphenated groups to buy their votes.
There is indeed a huge question whether Holder can administer US justice independent of a president.
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Pardoning Terror--How would-be attorney general Eric Holder won the release of 16 FALN terrorists
By John Perazzo, FrontPageMagazine.com
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=3BDF4733-1689-4B8A-B263-B119AD5407D9 ^ | John Perazzo
In 1997, Holder became President Clinton’s Deputy Attorney General in the Justice Department headed by Janet Reno. In this role, Holder was responsible for overseeing clemency investigations and determining which of those requests were ultimately worthy of President Clinton’s attention. As evidenced by a September 1997 memorandum from the Pardon Attorney, the Justice Department was, at this point, receiving numerous inquiries about the FALN and Macheteros—from the White House and from supporters of the prisoners. The aforementioned House Committee on Government Reform report stated:
“Throughout the closing months of 1997 it appears that Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder was active in the issue. The privilege log reflects at least two notes regarding his questions on the clemency or his thoughts on the matter.” On November 5, 1997, Holder met with Representatives Gutierrez, Serrano, and Velazquez to discuss the clemency issue. He advised the legislators that they might greatly increase the likelihood of a presidential pardon if they could convince the prisoners to write letters testifying as to the personal remorse they felt for their past actions. But no such letters would be produced for five months, during which time the clemency issue remained on hold.
Meanwhile, in a January 6, 1998 letter, a senior Justice Department official expressly referred to the FALN members as “terrorists.” Then on April 8, 1998, Holder again met with FALN supporters. This time, they finally delivered statements from the prisoners as Holder had advised in November. Once again, however, there was a problem: all their statements were identical, indicating that not one of the prisoners had made the effort to craft his own personal expression of repentance. Undeterred, Holder asked whether the prisoners might at least agree to renounce future violence in exchange for clemency.
One of the prisoners’ backers, Reverend Paul Sherry, made it clear that they surely “would not change their beliefs”—presumably about the issue of Puerto Rican independence—but was vague as to whether they would eschew violence altogether.
Over the next few weeks, Holder and the Justice Department continued to meet with clemency advocates. Holder was the point man for these negotiations. As Brian Blomquist wrote in the New York Post, “A list of FALN documents withheld from Congress shows that many memos on the FALN clemency decision went directly to Holder, while Reno’s role was minimal.” Similarly, New York Daily News reporter Edward Lewine wrote that Holder was “the Justice Department official most involved with this issue.”
It should be noted that throughout the clemency review process, neither Holder nor anyone else in the Justice Department contacted the FALN’s victims or their families. As a result, most were never aware that clemency for the terrorists was even being contemplated. Those few who were aware of the possibility were rebuffed in their efforts to participate in the review process.
On May 19, 1998, DOJ’s pardon attorney sent Eric Holder a 48-page draft memorandum “concerning clemency for Puerto Rican Nationalist prisoners.” Seven weeks later, on July 8, Holder sent President Clinton a “memorandum regarding clemency matter.” Behind the scenes, indeed, the Deputy Attorney General was methodically spearheading the march toward clemency—despite the fact that the sentencing judges, the U.S. Attorneys, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Fraternal Order of Police, and the FBI were unanimous in their opposition to pardoning the FALN.
In late July 1999 an attorney from Holder’s office spoke to White House Counsel Charles Ruff regarding the clemency. On August 9, 1999, Holder’s office and OPA held one final meeting to hammer out the details, and two days later the President made his announcement: clemency had been granted to the 16 terrorists, most of whom had served only a fraction of their prison terms. Of the sixteen, twelve accepted the offer and were freed; two refused it; and two others, already out of prison, never responded.
Clinton, who previously had complied with just 3 of 3,229 requests for clemency, justified his decision by explaining that the prisoners already had served sufficient prison time for their crimes. He further cited executive privilege for his refusal to give Congress a number of documents related to his verdict. Congress, for its part, was not pleased—condemning the clemencies by votes of 95-2 in the Senate and 311-41 in the House.
In the aftermath of August 11, 1999, a report by the very same Justice Department that employed Eric Holder stated that the FALN posed an “ongoing threat” to national security. And in late October 1999 the Senate Judiciary Committee released a report from Attorney General Janet Reno stating that the FALN members’ “impending release from prison” would “increase the present threat” of terrorism. Dangerous terrorists had been set free, and Eric Holder had made it happen.
Holder’s response to the threat reports was unconvincing at best. In an October 20 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, and again with reporters the following day, Eric Holder denied that Reno was referring to the same FALN terrorists whose pardons he had worked so long and hard to secure. Yet, when Holder was asked to identify whom Reno was in fact talking about, his response amounted to little more than a pathetic stammer:
I don’t know, no, I don’t know that. We might be able to get you some more information on that, but, I mean, you know, there were certain people who are due to be released, or who were at least eligible for parole, had a release date in the next, as I said, three, four years. I don’t know exactly who they were. Maybe—we might be able to get you that information.
They never did. Neither Holder nor the Justice Department ever provided the names of any of these mystery men.
In the final analysis, Eric Holder was the individual most central to the Clinton White House’s dogged quest to pardon the FALN terrorists. His efforts toward that end can more accurately be characterized as partisan advocacy than as dispassionate dispensation of justice. As the December 1999 House Committee on Government Reform report put it:
The 16 terrorists appear to be most unlikely candidates. They did not personally request clemency. They did not admit to wrongdoing and they had not renounced violence before such a renunciation had been made a quid pro quo for their release. They expressed no contrition for their crimes, and were at times openly belligerent about their actions.
Notwithstanding the fact that the 16 did not express enough personal interest in the clemency process to file their own applications, the White House appeared eager to assist throughout the process. Meetings were held with supporters, and some senior staff [i.e., Holder] even suggested ways to improve the likelihood of the President granting the clemency. Overall, the White House appears to have exercised more initiative than the terrorists themselves.
Nearly ten years after the FALN pardons, Holder is once again set to enter the Attorney General’s office – this time as its head. But before assuming that important post, he owes the American people – and the victims of FALN terror – the explanation he failed to provide when the terrorists were set free.
Holder got really snide with Spector. I’ve never seen any candidate at any hearing do that to a Senator.
I think Spector is pissed.
We know for sure Obama and the Dims ARE NOT going to listen to us. Now, keep in mind, Obaba's most dedicated supporters---Black churchgoers----do not like these shady shenanigans.
Obaba caters to his Black churchgoer-constituency.
For instance----Obaba came out against gay marriage......despite his liberal proclivities. Black churchgoers vehmently oppose gay marriage---it is a paramount issue with them (some even switched votes to Republicans in earlier elections for that reason).
It would behoove web crawlers to keep Black churchgoers on top of these issues......so that Obaba will be pressured by the supporters who mean so much to him.
Compile EMAIL lists of Black churchgoers....post these lists on FR on issues that need pressure groups to move on. New investigations, and those in place, must go forward after Obama's canonizatopn on inauguration day.
Black churchgoers are the people who can move these issues.
In the future, please note the Activism sidebar is reserved for News/Activism of the FR chapters.
Related...
Eric Holder, Bill Clinton, Wright’s ‘Black Liberation’ “church”, and the pardons of 16 members of the Puerto Rican Marxist terrorist 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
Eric Holder - the black male version of Janet Reno. How many children will barbecue under this man’s rule of terror?
At least he’s not lining up behind McCain to kiss Dear Leader’s err...ring, yet..
LOLOL! How can you tell?? Republicans have had plenty to be pissed about for the past 8 years from the democraps, but do they stand firm?
Nooooooooooo.
Do they challeng the Craps on their motives or tactics?
Nooooooooooo.
Do they appear to the public as a united force with a solid message of republican values?
Noooooooooooo.
This from Specter is a token protest from a wounded whimpering duck amidst a pack of hungry wolves.
Holder will be confirmed.
Holder got snipy with Spector. And one can hope.
Specter is still a RINO and not to be trusted.
Of course he is, it’s all show. They are all worried about re-election.
Arlen Spector: “… I’ve been asked, and I make the sharp distinction between my personal request and the request of the other Republican members of this committee, they have asked me to articulate their request that the nomination be held over for one week.”
Chairman Leahy: “The request has been made by the Republicans to hold the nomination over for one week. I am extremely disappointed, but they have the right and this historic, historic (emphasis) nomination is held over, we will stand in recess until ……”
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If anyone knows what’s going on, pls Freepmail me. TIA
While there are some principles of Specter's that I disagree with, the man does stick by the principles he has, which is more than you can say for the Dems and half the Republicans.
Here's a trivia note: Bob Dole and Arlen Specter BOTH grew up in the small town of Russell, Kansas.
You want black, conservative church-goers?
Connect with "Joshua's Trail," a talk-radio program out of Detroit,
If you haven't heard it, you wouldn't believe it, but brother, these are some REAL conservatives.
http://www.joshuastrail.org/
Yes, I knew that. Kind of improbable that a town that size could produce two unrelated US senators who served at the same time.
Is a week sufficient time for a GOP spinal implant?
They should let Holder in with all the rest of the crooks from the Clinton Gang. Why break up a perfect set?
NO, and we'll be lucky if they even raise a couple of slightly critical questions before they roll over.
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