Posted on 01/14/2009 7:29:39 AM PST by george76
Senate Republicans have invited the son of man killed in a 1975 Puerto Rican nationalist bombing as well as a former FBI agent who investigated two violent groups supporting Puerto Rican independence to appear at Eric Holder’s confirmation hearings.
In particular, they question Holder’s role in President Clinton’s 2001 pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich as well as Holder’s involvement in Clinton’s 1999 decision to grant clemency to 16 violent Puerto Rican nationalists.
To drive home those questions, Republicans have arranged for Joseph F. Connor, whose father was killed in the Jan. 24, 1975, bombing of Fraunces Tavern in New York City, to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee as it considers Holder’s nomination.
"Eric Holder has been nominated for the top law enforcement position in the country, yet, if this is true, he supported and pushed for the release of terrorists," Connor told the Los Angeles Times in a Jan. 9 story on Holder’s role in the clemency application for the Puerto Rican nationalists. These individuals were members of the group FALN and another organization.
Clinton granted the clemency requests in 1999, and Holder helped override concerns from top DOJ officials about the decision, according to the newspaper. "How can he reconcile that? Why would he push for something so dangerous?"Connor asked.
Richard “Rick” Hahn is another GOP witness. Hahn investigated the FALN’s activities for 13 years, and he told the L.A. Times that Holder’s involvement in the commutations was “an outrage.”
Holder’s commitment - or lack thereof - to the rights of gun owners and the Second Amendment has also become a talking point for Republicans opposing his confirmation.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
“In particular, they question Holder’s role in President Clinton’s 2001 pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich as well as Holder’s involvement in Clinton’s 1999 decision to grant clemency to 16 violent Puerto Rican nationalists.”
ROADBLOCK????
Good idea.
I don’t see this working, to be honest.
The GOP needs to go after the Sec of Treasury nominee.
Holders chix comin’ home!
I’m interested to see where this nomination goes but what I’m waiting for is O’s appointment of a new F.B.I director. You have to know that there’s no way he’s keeping Muller. Is this where Gorelick will wind up?
The Republicans are powerless. All they can do is grandstand and mope. They cannot stop this or anyone else’s nomination from being approved.............
LLS
I don’t see this working, to be honest.
The GOP needs to go after the Sec of Treasury nominee.
If the republicans in congress had a set they could eliminate a number of these cabinet people. Geithner, Holder, Daschle for his lobby ties, Browner.
What a ship of fools. (the cabinet appointees -— actually the Republicans also.)
The only way to stop Holder is to raise a big stink, which the republicans will not do for fear of being called racists.....
We have to beat the Republicans before we have a hope of beating the Democrats.
I know.
It seems that a LOT of Obama’s nominees have shady dealings in their past.
Of course, when you are a lightweight political hack from the Daly chicago machine, it was inevitable.
Pity McLame didn’t have the gonads to talk about it.
I wrote both my Senators about my opposition to Holder. I can’t wait to see Hatch’s reply, particularly after reading his pathetic reply to my support for clemency for a couple of Border Patrol agents.
If the Republicans raise too much of a stink, the chairman will have their remarks stricken from the record, and they will be banned from the hearings. The chairman can declare a question “Not Allowed” and the Republicans cannot do a thing............
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