How disheartening to watch U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder maneuver, spin, duck, dodge and dissemble. Perhaps Holder still clings to the notion that he is serving the country and protecting the President, but his actions have pushed him well beyond that high ground. Even Democrat leaders in congress, long-time Holder allies who long ago stopped thinking for themselves and who now resemble crazed wildebeests lost in their blind stampede against Republicans, are having doubts.
During three years at Justice, Attorney General Holder has told too many tales, ducked accountability too many times and has too-often clung to the tattered banner of racist assertions.
Americans have watched this recent Team Obama drama unfold over the past two years as the Attorney General initially claimed no knowledge of the Fast & Furious operation, then admitted limited knowledge but no direct involvement, to his recent assertion of Executive Privilege, implying that not only is Holder involved, but that the President is also.
Holder’s Fast & Furious story has changed so often, and usually after additional scrutiny is applied, that the Justice Department’s credibility and Holder's has been shredded. The credibility of the Justice Department to is further eroded by the latest round of comical maneuvering by the President to assert Executive Privilege to protect deliberations between the Attorney General and the President regarding an operation about which they both claim they knew nothing. That Holder and Obama expect Americans to believe such contradictory posturings boggle the mind.
Now, right on cue, the Democrat leadership wildebeests stampede to the next waterhole by crying GOP anti-Holder "racism", when explaining congress' motive in finding Eric Holder guilty of contempt of congress. Haven't Americans had enough of that old saw? And doesn’t a 258 vote for with only 95 against disprove the “racism” claims?
Let’s look at some facts.
AG Holder has testified that he cannot provide the documents requested by Congress regarding Fast & Furious and the death of Border Agent, Brian Terry, because they are considered too "sensitive" to share with Congress.
How ironic that the White House and DoJ see no commensurate sensitivity preventing them from revealing the identity of an informer who aided the United States, providing data that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden. Eric Holder, the Department of Justice and the White House, are awfully quick to release sensitive information that might imprison and ultimately kill a potential ally if the politics suggest a small bump in the polls might be gained.
Nor is that all. We have seen details of secret operations leaked by the White House, methods and sources coughed up that our intelligence experts say will set back our nation’s ability for the next ten years. And yet, Holder urges Americans to look away; nothing untoward is happening here he says, as he urges all Americans to join the unthinking, Democrat wildebeests and keep moving along.
AG Holder also tells Americans that the House Oversight Committee's inquiry into Fast & Furious is a waste of time, a waste of taxpayer money, and that there is more important work that the Department of Justice needs to be doing.
Right. Consider this: assisting congress' investigation into the Fast & Furious debacle, which led to the death of an American border agent and the placement of thousands of assault weapons in the hands of Mexican drug cartels, is a waste of the government's time? However, spending three and a half year and almost $100 million taxpayer dollars building a twice-failed case against baseball legend, Roger Clemens, was a better use of DoJ time, energy and tax payer dollars? Go figure.
The Department of Justice doesn't have time to investigate and to prosecute with rigor social security disability fraud either, even though it costs our nation almost $200 billion dollars annually in wrongful payments.
Then there is the special case of Scott Bloch, former head of the Office of Special Counsel. Americans may have forgotten Scott Bloch; the Department of Justice certainly hopes they have. Bloch was the fellow that unscrupulous Democrat leaders in congress once depended upon to serve up juicy morsels of scandal and alleged misdeeds within the Bush Administration. Democrats quoted him often, the New York Times and Washington Post rushed editorials. Then, the FBI raided his office and discovered that he had lied to Congress and had constructed an elaborate disinformation campaign to falsely discredit others.
To cover his tracks, Bloch paid ‘Geeks on Call’ to erase government computers and asked his chums to post blog reports, masquerading as wounded warriors to try and settle scores and sway public opinion. Bloch was, quite frankly, a real piece of work, who was finally caught after a long run and was forced to plead guilty to lying to Congress back in 2008. For the past several years, Holder’s Justice Department has helped Bloch escape all responsibility for lying to Congress and falsifying government reports, accepting stall after stall, as Bloch attempts to avoid the mandatory jail term and fine associated with his misdeeds.
Seemingly, under AG Holder, the Department of Justice is not so much interested in facts and justice, but rather is wholly consumed with political tradeoffs and calculations.
Justice for those that help the political fortunes of Mr. Holder, and his allies, is far different from the justice others can expect.
Of course, no description of just how Mr. Holder’s DoJ carefully selects investigations to coincide with the political benefits derived can be complete without a mention of the two Black Panthers swinging night sticks at potential voters at a voting precinct in Philadelphia in 2008.
Holder’s Justice Department doesn't have time to investigate that that kind of voter intimidation, but, instead, is now mobilizing huge resources and millions of taxpayer funds to prevent states such as Florida from updating voter lists by removing the people that have died, Mickey Mouse, and countless others that had been added to the voter rolls by fraudsters like ACORN.
Perhaps Americans should admit that Justice, under Eric Holder's leadership, is both arbitrary and dangerous, and is neither fair nor swift. Democrat party leaders crying "racism" is demeaning and shameful and is nothing but a poor attempt to intimidate Congressman Darryl Issa and the House Oversight Committee into silence.
Americans should also understand that holding Holder in contempt of congress is important for what it represents. First, the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch are supposed to work for the same goal—the good of the American people. There should be truth between the two branches. So the contempt charge proves that our Founding Father’s system of checks and balances does work.
Second, in voting 258 – 95, Congress seems to be saying that under Eric Holder's Department of Justice, the law is not being applied fairly or equally, and that the decisions, at the highest level, of what Department of Justice and Team Obama considers "transparent" and time-worthy is capricious, vindictive and politically motivated. Congress seems to be saying that Americans deserve better—and we do.
Eric Holder’s Tangled Web of Deception
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.