Posted on 01/28/2009 9:34:49 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Senate committee voted to approve Eric Holder to be the first black attorney general, sending his nomination on Wednesday to the full Senate, which is expected to confirm him.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 17-2 to confirm President Barack Obama's nomination of Holder, a deputy attorney general under former President Bill Clinton. Holder had faced questions over his record, including his support for controversial pardons issued by Clinton, and Republicans had delayed the vote for a week until Wednesday.
"Eric Holder is a good man. He's a decent man. He's a public servant committed to the rule of law and he will be a good attorney general," committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said before the vote.
He said he regretted that "the committee may have stumbled a bit" in delaying the vote.
Holder will play a lead role in the Obama administration's plans to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, which has become an international symbol for U.S. prisoner abuses in the fight against terrorism. He said in his Senate confirmation hearing on January 15 that it would take longer to devise a replacement system that some have hoped.
Two of the committee's eight Republicans voted against Holder. One of them, John Cornyn of Texas, said he had doubts about Holder's judgment, independence, and views on fighting terrorism.
However, the committee's ranking Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, supported Holder's nomination despite expressing earlier concerns.
Holder broke with the Bush administration in his hearings to call the waterboarding interrogation technique "torture." He pledged to protect civil rights and adhere to the Constitution even while fighting terrorism "with every available tool."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Hurray for my Senator, Cornyn.
Ya know, I’d say “this is going to get worse before it gets better” but I am not convinced that it is going to get better.
Yes - I’ll send him a thank you note!
Oh my. Eric Holder paves the way for pardoning the biggest convicted thief in the history of the U.S. plus terrorists and gets promoted for his efforts.
Change we can believe in!
Say hello to the most anti-2nd Amendment AG in the history of the republic.
That doesn’t make any sense to me. Cornyn votes NO on Holder but Yes on Geithner.
And I just sent emails to McConnell, Kyle, Boehner, Cantor and my three CongressCritters regarding the Stimulus Bill with the inclusion of Medical Records provision.
If you write the Leadership try to include having them Slow Down and read all the bills coming from committee and to watch for “corrections” that could change the intent of the bill. (Like a prepositional change.)
WE HAVE GOT TO SLOW DOWN THE RUNAWAY TRAIN OF DEMOCRAT INTRODUCED CONGRESSIONAL BILLS. Yes I’m yelling.
Yell on Norm!!
After this I do not have any hope for this once great nation. Our government is now ruled by liars and cheats. With the few Republicans now holding office, I have no faith in them. They will go along with the cheats and liars to get along. None of them have any backbone.
If Patrick Leahy describes Eric Holder as a “..good man. He’s a decent man”, my spidey senses go all tingling immediately. What else is Leahy concealing?
Because whatever Leahy endorses, almost certainly it is not for the greater good of the United States. Just for revealing the US intelligence had been monitoring the communications of the various Islamic jihadists through cell phones, he should have been tried, sentenced and sent to spend time in prison as a traitor and seditious criminal.
Senatorial immunity notwithstanding.
You are right on in your assessment,mom-7.
Cornyn votes NO on Holder but Yes on Geithner.
I saw that.
—
Whatever happened to reading the dang bill first, then voting on it.
“”WE HAVE GOT TO SLOW DOWN THE RUNAWAY TRAIN OF DEMOCRAT INTRODUCED CONGRESSIONAL BILLS. Yes I’m yelling.””
I think we’re all with you and will be typing in CAPS for the next four years.
I called my representative in Washington - John Linder - GA and I was told that he plans on voting NO on the stimulus. I was told this AFTER I did my spiel for him to vote NO. Chambliss and Isakson did the right thing on Geithner and hopefully will do the right thing on Holder. Let the dems sink on their own WITHOUT Republican input! They don’t need Republican votes in the House and probably not in the Senate as they can always count on R’s to vote with the dems there.
If ever a Senator lived up to the definition of his name, it is Specter.
>> Hurray for my Senator, Cornyn.
I faxed him this morning regarding voting as a conservative as opposed to merely posing as one. I specifically mentioned Eric Holder.
I am pleased to see that he voted correctly in committee.
I note with chagrin that on Hillary Clintoon, he voted against her before he voted FOR her.
Hopefully he will also vote NO in the full Senate vote. If not I will be greatly disappointed.
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