Attorney General Eric Holder
*Attorney General Eric Holder has repeatedly and publicly called the drumbeat attacks on him politically motivated. He said the same again, and punctuated it even more strongly by calling the action “crass,” when the House with the backing and to the disgrace of 17 Democrats voted to hold him in contempt. It was both a shameful milestone and the culmination of the GOP’s two pronged assault against the Obama Administration. The first part of the dirty strategy was to pluck out what it considered a vulnerable Achilles Heel in the Obama administration, namely one of his appointees to hector, harass and discredit. Holder early on was deemed the most inviting target. The other GOP assault prong is to taint, tar, and embarrass the Obama administration by targeting Holder for congressional hounding. The GOP capped its hit strategy by dumping on Holder the dubious distinction of being the first Attorney General in U.S. history to be held in contempt by Congress.
The ploy was in place from virtually the moment that President Obama hinted that Holder would be his Attorney General pick. Obama held off the initial onslaught against Holder by getting key Senate Republicans to agree not to block Holder’s appointment. They agreed but that didn’t mean that Holder would not be in the GOP’s bulls eye for attack. During the confirmation hearings he was sweated by a handful of GOP Senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee on every concocted and manufactured alleged indiscretion that Holder purportedly committed as President Clinton’s Deputy Attorney General.
It was just a matter of time before the GOP found the issue to launch a full blown assault on Holder and hope that it stuck with lawmakers and the public blew back on Obama. The bare details are by now well known about the botched ATF’s Mexican gun sting operation “fast and furious” — in which thousands of guns were supposedly supplied to Mexican drug cartel traffickers. All the GOP would have the public believe this happened with Holder’s connivance and then when it went awry, allegedly covered it up, with a strong hint that Obama was part of that cover-up.
An exhaustive investigative report by Esquire Magazine more than convincingly blew this bogus notion to shreds. It documented that the operation was a maze of bungling, incompetence, by agents and the legal hand tying of federal prosecutors. The biggest obstacle was Arizona’s lax gun laws that gave virtual open license for anyone to buy, sale and swap guns with minimal regulation. This doomed the Bush administration initiated operation to failure from the start.
Holder made that point nearly a dozen times during many hard grillings by the GOP controlled House Oversight Committee. He backed it up by turning over thousands of requested documents to the Committee on the operation and offered to turn over even more documents. If it wanted the Committee could have called the legion of ATF agents, prosecutors, and other operatives that were involved in the operation to publicly testify about the operation. These are the same operatives that media investigators talked to and were readily accessible for testimony. They didn’t call them. Their non-testimony, the thousands of documents it had, and Holder’s offer to supply more meant nothing to the Committee. The issue wasn’t getting to the truth on the issue as they sanctimoniously claimed, but getting Holder.
Now that Holder has been cited for contempt, the matter of what to do about him has been plopped in the lap of the District of Columbia US Attorney. This gives the GOP yet another weapon to pound Holder and Obama. It will scream loudly that the US Attorney, an Obama appointee, will bury the Holder case and therefore that’s even more proof that Holder and Obama are allegedly conniving to thwart justice. It’s a near perfect maneuver and set-up to try and keep the heat on the Obama administration.
Then on the campaign trail, the GOP will hammer hard on the issue of Holder-Obama alleged trail of incompetence and duplicity to make the case that Obama’s Justice Department is a nest of political corruption. In any other year, this would be shrugged off for the clownish and pitiable grandstanding put up job that it is. But this is not any other year, it’s an election year and the GOP has rolled the political dice that hammering Holder will be the perfect distraction to keep Obama off balance at every point during the campaign. The official record then may show that Holder is in contempt of Congress. The real record shows that it’s the House and its action that’s contemptible.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a frequent political commentator on MSNBC and a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the author of How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK-Radio and the Pacifica Network.
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It was just a matter of time before the GOP found the issue to launch a full blown assault on Holder and hope that it stuck with lawmakers and the public blew back on Obama. … This doomed the Bush administration initiated operation to failure from the start.
So let me ask you som’n Earl. Why the fuck did Obama put himself in this position in the first place? I’ve been saying from day one why Obama should not go in there and try to kiss Republicans ass by endorsing their policies, but apologists like you always have an excuse for him.
This is not Holder’s fault. Holder went in there with a mindset to make a difference by doing the right thing. But Obama and the corrupt fake ass Dems in his cabinet had other ideas. They don’t really give a fuck about right or wrong. As long as by their delusional reasoning, it is politically expedient. Which in their world, means less criticism from the right. So the policy was to continue all of Bush’s wars and corrupt practices. It’s just a matter of time before the Repubs also start using the war against him. That is the same war which he escalated to pander to them. But don’t pity him. He knew what he was getting into. As Obama said, whatever the outcome, he is willing to kill to get re-elected.
So Earl, now you come writing this article sating the facts. You think the Republicans give a shit? One of the biggest irony is that Obama went in there and choose to look the other way concerning all of Bush’s war crimes, expecting the Repubs to return the favor. By now you think he would know how much they hate him and will use every opportunity to screw him.
So I’m wondering if all you mofos who been giving Obama a pass for all his bullshit, do y’all even give a shit? Did y’all really not see this coming?
Is this racial?
Some people will argue that it’s not racial because they did the same thing to Clinton. Ken Starr spent millions going after Clinton for bullshit charges relating to Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky, and still had nothing to show at the end. It’s part of the Republicans DNA to be spiteful towards every Democratic president, and nowadays Republicans are even more hateful than those of the recent Clinton Bush 2 era. Whether or not it has to do with the election of the first black POTUS, it’s no secret how they feel about him, often stating their intention to do everything to make him a one termer. So why is he walking around the white house with his head up his ass believing for a second that he can influence these SOBs? I think this has more to do with Obama’s over ambitious personality. This desperate desire to emulate Lincoln by working with rivals. So he went in there appointing all these damn Republicans to his cabinet who would turn against him when given the opportunity.
What Obama needs to remember is that Lincoln lived in a totally different era. But it seems that despite all the signs, he’s trying even harder to please them. Look at the recent NDA act allowing indefinite detention without charge. That’s how desperate he is to appease them. Can’t he see that the more he kisses their ass the less respect and fear they have for him? People often talk about Obama being one of the smartest politicians ever, so when the fuck will he gets a clue? The mofos don’t like you because you are a Democrat and the fact that you are black doesn’t help.
Is this racial?
Yes, it’s partisan politics exacerbated by race.