Tipsheet

Re: Eric Holder is Politicizing the Issue

Katie -- I heard Attorney General Eric Holder on "Face the Nation" this weekend as well, and agree that he's grossly politicizing the location of the KSM trial. The juicy bit of information from that interview, however, was whether the death penalty can be imposed as easily in a military trial as it can be in a civilian trial. Holder seems to think KSM will fry much more easily if you try him as a civilian.

I don't want KSM in NYC, and I don't want him tried as a civilian for political reasons. But I believe in the rule of law above anything else, and if there's a lesser chance he'll get the death penalty with a military trial, I say we throw caution to the wind and try him as a civilian. That man's life ending is way more important than the type of trial he has.

All of this assumes that Holder is being honest about all of this -- that he's not using the probability of the death penalty as yet another political football.