America Needs a Balanced, Objective Attorney General after Eric Holder's Divisiveness

Eric Holder, who directed the Obama administration's legal fight against terrorism and was outspoken on issues of racial fairness, is resigning after six years on the job as the nation's first black Attorney General. The White House said that President Obama announced Holder's departure today at the White House. A White House spokesman said that Holder, one of Obama's longest serving Cabinet members, will continue as Attorney General until a successor is confirmed. Holder's decision comes in the midst of a high-profile Justice Department civil rights investigation into the use of force by police in Ferguson, Missouri, where a young black man was shot by a white law enforcement officer last month. Holder has been the leader in forming the administration's reaction to the police shooting in Ferguson last month of Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, sparking racial tension in the St. Louis suburb. The news of Holder's resignation came as civil rights leaders and the families of the Ferguson man, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner, who died in a New York City police chokehold this summer, were appearing at a news conference in Washington. The Reverend Al Sharpton said today that he hopes the White House will meet with civil rights representatives before appointing a replacement. "There has not been an attorney general with a civil rights record equal to Attorney General Eric Holder," Sharpton said. Speaking to AP recently, Holder said he hopes the Ferguson matter is settled quickly, saying that it is not in the best interests of the nation to have this drag out. "There's a great deal of anticipation, and I'd say apprehension, on the part of the people in Ferguson, and many people in this nation, about how this is going to be resolved." And in fact, Holder may be resigning now so that Obama can use the lameduck session of a still-Democrat majority Senate to push through his nominee as Holder's successor. ~~~~~ The White House also said today that the President has not made a final decision on a replacement for Holder, one of the most progressive voices in his Cabinet, who finalized his plans in a meeting with the President over the Labor Day weekend, according to a Justice Department official. Possible candidates among administration officials include : Solicitor General Don Verrilli; Deputy US Attorney General James Cole; Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a former Rhode Island attorney general; former White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler; Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York; and Jenny Durkan, a former US Attorney in Washington state. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, mentioned as a possible Holder successor, took himself out of consideration : "That's an enormously important job, but it's not one for me right now," Patrick said. ~~~~~ Holder has admitted that his upbringing influenced his legal perspective - his father was born in Barbados and his sister helped desegregate the University of Alabama. He referred to America in 2009 as a "nation of cowards" in discussions of race. He later lamented that "systemic and unwarranted racial disparities remain disturbingly common." A former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, Holder left private practice to take the job of reshaping a Justice Department that had been tarnished by a scandal involving fired US attorneys and that had authorized harsh interrogation methods for terrorism suspects. He immediately signaled a new direction by declaring that waterboarding was torture, contrary to the George W. Bush administration's insistence that it wasn't. Holder wanted to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other alleged co-conspirators in New York. The plan was stopped by political opposition to granting civilian criminal trials to terrorist suspects, who would have had greater legal protections in civilian courts than in military commissions. But, Holder maintained his position that civilian courts were the most appropriate venue. He argued that his original plan was vindicated by the successful prosecution in New York of Osama bin Laden's son-in-law. ~~~~~ Eric Holder's tenure as Attorney General was among the most controversial in US history. Representative Darrell Issa said on news of Eric Holder's resignation : "Eric Holder is the most divisive US Attorney General in modern history." Representative Matt Salmon said Eric Holder's resignation should be welcome by advocates of justice across the US. Here are some examples of Holder actions and statements that appeared in my August 25 blog. (1). Discriminatory Hiring Practices -- August 8, 2011 court documents revealed that the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division had been engaging in politicized hiring in the career civil service ranks. In June 2008, Holder said that the Justice Department was “going to be looking for people who share our values.” (2). Fort Hood -- Not one of the post-attack reports issued by the DOJ mentioned Nidal Hasan’s Islamist ideology. Obama administration reports on the attack labeled it as “workplace violence.” (3). AP Surveillance -- The Holder Justice Department secretly obtained two months of the telephone records of reporters and editors for AP. The records provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know. (4). Weather Underground Pardon -- Holder, as Deputy Attorney General, “was the gatekeeper for presidential pardons.” Two of the recipients of Holder’s pardons were former Weather Underground members Susan Rosenberg and Linda Evans. The Weather Underground was a far-left organization whose main objective was to overthrow the American government. (5). Hostility Towards Conservatives -- At an American Constitution Society gathering in 2004, Holder said : “Conservatives have been defenders of the status quo, afraid of the future, and content to allow to continue to exist all but the most blatant inequalities....made a mockery of the rule of law....put the environment at risk for the sake of unproven economic theories, to play to the fears of our citizens, and not to their hopes, and to return the nation to a time that in fact never existed.” Holder said conservatives are “breathtaking” in their “arrogance.,,," The hallmarks of the “conservative agenda” include “social division, mindless tax cutting, and a defense posture that does not really make us safer....With the mainstream media somewhat cowered by conservative critics, and the conservative media disseminating the news in anything but a fair and balanced manner, and you know what I mean there, the means to reach the greatest number of people is not easily accessible.” (6). Opposition to Second Amendent Rights -- In 2008, Eric Holder claimed that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual’s right to keep and bear arms, but only applied to government militia. (7). Opposition to Voter ID Laws -- Eric Holder has consistently opposed efforts to pass voter ID laws. (8). Fast & Furious -- A US government gun-trafficking investigation gone very wrong. The number of arms unaccounted for is around 1,500 and about two-thirds of those guns ended up in Mexico, according to congressional testimony. Fast & Furious has resulted in the death of a US Border Patrol officer, some 2,000 firearms in the hands of criminals, and the dismissal of a 24-year veteran law enforcement official. ~~~~~ So, dear readers, no matter who President Obama names as the next US Atorney General, he or she will have little chance of becoming as divisive a figure as Eric Holder. But, that really shouldn't be the role of an Attorney General. The office of Attorney General was established by Congress in The Judiciary Act of 1789. The duties of this officer were "to prosecute and conduct all suits in the Supreme Court in which the United States shall be concerned, and to give his advice and opinion upon questions of law when required by the president of the United States, or when requested by the heads of any of the departments." Only in 1870 was the Department of Justice established to support the attorney general in the discharge of his responsibilities. The Attorney General, with the Secretaries of State, Treasury and Defense, are the four main Cabinet officers. The Attorney General is 7th in line of succession for the presidency. So, what a President should look for in a prospective Attorney General are solid legal experience and written or spoken indications of an undrtstanding of the American Constitutional process and government. What the United States does not need in an Attorney General is the divisiveness caused by his pursuit of a political agenda of any sort - right or left - as Eric Holder has created, we may assume at the request of President Obama, because the Attorney General serves at the President's pleasure. If the next Attorney General can bring a new balance and objectivity to the job, America will be well-served.