Posted on 05/20/2010 9:38:43 AM PDT by jazusamo
No doubt, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is a smart man: a former federal judge, U.S. attorney, Columbia University graduate, the first black American to serve as attorney general.
But sometimes you have to wonder if he’s politically tone deaf.
There have been the well publicized gaffes and missteps over terror trials in New York City federal courts, the Mirandizing of terrorists and his declaration that Arizona’s new immigration law is unconstitutional, despite his not having read the law.
But what is most galling to Virginians — Central Virginians, especially — is his inexplicable behavior and stony silence in the ongoing saga of convicted killer Jens Soering. Soering is serving two life terms for the brutal 1985 killings of Derek and Nancy Haysom of Bedford County, one of the most infamous crimes in modern Virginia history.
Days before he left office in January, former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine formally requested that the federal government take custody of Soering, the son of a powerful German diplomat, and transfer him to a German prison, where he would be eligible for parole in just two years.
Reaction was swift and predictable. The House of Delegates and State Senate voted unanimously to oppose the transfer request. Within days after taking the oath of office, Gov. Bob McDonnell wrote Holder on Jan. 19 to inform him that, as the commonwealth’s new chief executive, he was revoking his predecessor’s request.
And there the matter has sat. State Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, and Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Sixth District, have been closely monitoring the case for any developments.
As weeks dragged into months with nary a word from Holder’s office, Goodlatte, the vice ranking member of the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives, had had enough.
Last week during the committee’s May 13 oversight hearing of the Justice Department, Goodlatte questioned Holder about the status of Soering transfer request.
The attorney general’s answer? He was waiting to determine the official position of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Excuse us? Unanimous action by the General Assembly, the oldest legislative body in North America, and an official letter from the governor of the commonwealth aren’t enough?
What doesn’t Attorney General Holder understand?
That must have been Gov. McDonnell’s reaction, too, as he sent yet another official letter to the attorney general on May 17, restating his revocation of the Kaine transfer request.
Soering was convicted of state crimes by a jury of his peers in a state court. He is serving his sentence, in state custody, in a state prison. And that’s where he should stay. Period.
Reading the governor’s letter from Monday, it’s hard not to notice his frustration with Holder and the Justice Department. Just what does the attorney general not understand?
“This is not a federal matter. The position of the Commonwealth is clear,” McDonnell wrote last week. “It is important that any consideration of a transfer be officially terminated and that the matter be put to rest.”
We couldn’t agree more.
This clown would be hard pressed to be competent at cleaning out porta-pottys. IMNSHO
Like his boss, he’s an America-hater and a racist. They want to remake this country into a socialist state. That explains EVERYTHING they do.
There are competent Blacks out there. I know, because I had some working for me. Just where does the government keep finding these affirmative-action dull tools? Why do they keep overlooking the really good ones?
Excellent question that I don’t begin to have an answer to but it does seem that a lot of them find political jobs.
Lyin' all the time
Wahalll, ya ain't caught a bomber and
Ya ain't no friend o' mine!
The Obama administration’s MO is to stonewall.
I think that both Holder and Obama are at most “affirmative action” law school grads, if even that. I have seen no evidence of trained legal analysis, method, understanding or reasoning come out of either one of them. Who says they’re top-notch lawyers? They seem to sit around and praise one-another. I think that an average 2nd semester law student at a decent state school would easily out-class either one of them in a fair comparison.
He's a Rat, doing what Rats do. Only explanation I can come up with.
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