Monday, September 29, 2014

Eric Holder's Legacy Is What?

There was an interesting article at Politico the other day. The article was written by a liberal who tried to explain Eric Holder's legacy. Despite being an attempt to make Holder look good, and even claiming that Holder was leaving "on a successful note," what struck me was how poor the article was at actually finding a positive legacy. Observe...

The article begins by admitting that not everyone views Holder positively... talk about understatement. The Republicans treated him like "a punching bag" over the "gun-tracking operation" Fast and Furious. They held him in contempt for not turning over documents related to that too, which is something that "will never totally be erased from his record." Oh, and he wasn't tough enough on Wall Street. But beyond that, Holder did some great stuff. Here's the list:
(1) His primary legacy will be his commitment to equal justice for all Americans.

(2) He had a prominent place in Obama's administration and lasted longer than most of Obama's Cabinet secretaries.

(3) He's black.

(4) His handling of Ferguson solidified his civil rights record as someone who cares about equal justice for all Americans.
Hmm. Ok. Let's examine these "four" points.

First, points one and four are the same. You can't double count his support for equal justice for all Americans by separating out instances. Hence, there are only three points here. Further, this claim is utter horse poop. Holder is notorious for taking the position that the nation's civil rights laws do not protect whites. His Justice Department pursued no cases of abuses by minorities. So the only way to say this is true is if you assume that whites are excluded from his commitment to equal justice. In other words, praise for his commitment to justice for "all" requires and asterisk that says: "statement does not apply to 72% of the population".

Further, let me add that Holder wasn't pro-gay when it came to marriage or benefits until five years into Obama's term. I guess they don't count either. And this is the same man who tried to argue that the terrorists at Gitmo had no rights... a position Bush never came close to taking. Clearly, they don't count either.

I would say honestly that what characterized Holder's term was an unprincipled laziness and indifference combined with a knee-jerk pro-black impulse. That's about it. And let's take a look at Ferguson. How brave has Holder really been? From the sound of things, the Ferguson police force is an epic mess. They clearly have not learned any of the policing lessons other departments have learned over the past 50 years. So what did Holder do to change that? Gee, he said he would send in DOJ to examine the department and put them under a form of super secret probation. But here's the thing, for as long as I can recall, most state and local police departments have already been subject to this. So this is nothing new. And what has this new plan done? Well, to hear the locals whine about it, nothing has changed. The police don't seem to have changed either. Essentially, Holder showed up, lectured us that we're all racists, did what Justice always does, and went back to his office to play with himself. Nice legacy.

And speaking of race, Holder is the guy who bizarrely claimed that America wasn't brave enough to talk about race when that's almost all we've been talking about since the 1960s... if not the 1860s. What else did he do to bring the country together or fix the racial divide? Nada... zip... jacksh*t. Again, nice legacy: one stupid speech and doing what DOJ already does one time.

As for number two, what kind of legacy is that? He was a lackey. Gee, thanks. Seriously, outlasting other cabinet secretaries is not evidence of quality. To the contrary, it's more likely evidence of anti-quality, of a man who never raises his head to cause problems or draw attention. As for being prominent, Holder is no more prominent than most other recent Attorneys General, and he's far less prominent than the dozens who actually did their jobs. In fact, had Holder done his job, he would have had bunches of things to investigate within the administration, but he chose the lackey route over the integrity root... and being a lackey never scores you a positive legacy.

As for being black, give me a break. That's the kind of "accomplishment" losers hide behind. If Holder had real achievements, the last thing anyone would be saying is, "Gee, his big accomplishment is being black and holding the job," especially as he didn't really earn the job -- he was appointed by his friend.

So seriously, where is Holder's positive legacy? His race is irrelevant to his accomplishment, except among liberals. His time in office produced no real groundbreaking changes of any sort. To the contrary, his department seems to have presided over a period when the Supreme Court took great delight in bitch-slapping everything Holder and friends thought would be law forever, and Holder did squat to fix it. He turned a blind eye as incompetence and law breaking ran rampant in Obama's administration. His pronouncements on race were rare, awkward, wrong and racist. His pronouncements beyond race were even more rare. He did nothing to clean up Wall Street, something both left and right would have agreed needed to be done. In fact, despite the left claiming he scored "record settlements" from some of the bigger banks, the stock of each shot up when the dollar amounts were announced. He took the "human rights outrage" of Gitmo and basically punted to the next administration. The legal advice he gave Obama about the filling of appointments was so bad that everything Obama did ended up being overturned by the courts. And so on.

Beyond that, I'm simply not sure what else to say about the man? He's an arrogant turd with the record of a lazy fool who likes the smell of his own farts. I would tend to think that almost anyone would have been a more effective Attorney General in almost every way.

Am I missing something?

22 comments:

Kit said...

"Am I missing something?"

Not really.

AndrewPrice said...

Yeah, I didn't think so. Not only is Obama an unaccomplished fool, but his team is just as bad if not worse.

Kit said...

So far, the only really competent man who has been his team that I can think of is former Secretary Gates. A holdover from the Bush years.

Anthony said...

Holder is an incompetent hack who survived as long as he did because he was incapable of being shamed out of his job.

That being said, I don't share your faith that the Republican party would have rallied behind Obama if the Justice Department had sought to clean up Wall Street. 'Democrats criminalizing capitalism' and 'OWS runs the DOJ' would have been the Republican position. Of course, fear of becoming unpopular among Republicans isn't what stopped Obama/Holder from going after corruption on Wall Street :).

As for the New Black Panther Party, I sounds to me like at least the guy with the nightstick deserved jail time, but I think the Bush administration overstepped by charging the whole organization. Also, many conservatives did themselves no favors by subsequently overinflating the importance/numbers of the NBP (which resulted in a lot of wasted resources in 2012). Below are snippets from two articles.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/11/06/Special-Forces-and-Navy-SEALS-Had-To-Polls-To-Counter-Black-Panther-Presence

Enter Retired Navy Captain Benjamin Brink, who is sending out "former and retired Special Forces and SEALS" to balance out the presence of the union thugs and New Black Panthers in Philly and elsewhere. Brink's goal is to be sure Romney supporters aren't intimidated into leaving the polls without voting, and to accomplish it, his slogan is "Get Out the Vet."

Here's the bottom line: Voters who may have otherwise been intimidated by union thugs or the presence of the New Black Panthers will certainly be encouraged when they see their polls flanked by heroes of the U.S. military: heroes driven not by the revenge Obama can't quit talking about, but by "Love of Country."

God bless Benjamin Brink and the Special Forces and SEALS that stand with him today.

-------------

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/08/new-black-panther-party_n_2092877.html

Ben Brink, a former Navy SEAL who is the leader of a group of conservative special operations veterans traveling to swing states in search of signs of liberal voter intimidation, told The Huffington Post on Tuesday that so far their sightings had been limited to "one dejected, unarmed" man.

"Philly has lots or rumors that we are tracking down, but only one dejected, unarmed NBPP seen so far," Brink told HuffPost by email.

Brink said the group is looking into more reports of sightings in Cleveland.

"We are tracking them," Brink said. "Hoping for video soon."
--------------

*Shrugs* Anyway, like Obama himself Holder didn't make anyone happy so his legacy will be one of failure. The only question is whether or not he eventually winds up in jail.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Well said, Andrew!
You demolished that poorly written legacy that dumb sap wrote for Holder.

I would love to see Holder get the justice he so richly deserves, behind bars.

Tennessee Jed said...

to me, Eric Holder epitomizes the concept of politicizing the job. He is not the first or only A.G. to do so. However, given the protection usually afforded the Obama administration by the liberal media, Holder didn't work very hard to try and cover up his corruption. My gut tells me he is somewhat guilty of a cover-up in Fast & Furious; Mediagate, and perhaps most aggegiously, the I.R.S. scandal. He reminds me of John Mitchell, and Obama reminds me of Nixon in that all were basically base politicians. Nixon had more foreign policy expertise, though.

I don't even begrudge Holder a bit of bias towards African Americans. It is to be expected. But, he was not transparent about it, and didn't even try to be even handed. He is a hack, and I sure hope B.O. doesn't try and get him on SCOTUS before he leaves office.

AndrewPrice said...

Kit, I haven't actually tracked who is competent and who isn't. One thing I can say for sure is that his higher profile characters like Napolitano, Holder, Hillary and Kerry have all been brutally incompetent. Gates was quite good. The rest, it's hard to tell because you just don't hear much about them.

AndrewPrice said...

Anthony, I should explain that I don't see the GOP joining with Obama against Wall Street. I think what you would have seen is the populist right and the populist left supporting those moves. I think the public at large would have supported it too. As for the GOP itself, some would have hated Obama no matter what because that's what they do (e.g. Cruz) and others would have defended their big corporate-socialist friends no matter what because that's what they do (e.g. Boehner, McCain).

The Black Panther issue is truly a boogeyman issue and the far-right fell for it hook line and sinker. Guys like Beck and Rush sold that one to the public based on false rumor and a desire to rile people up.

Koshcat said...

So his legacy is a black, racist butt-kisser?

AndrewPrice said...

Ben, Thanks! What's funny to me is that this the best they can come up with. What for a failure Holder must be if this is the best his defenders can do. Can you imagine?

Q: What is Ben's greatest accomplishment?
A: He's white and his friend got him a job.

Wow, aim high.

AndrewPrice said...

Jed, That's the most interesting thing. Normally, when people like this do their thing, they do their best to hide their dark sides and their dirty deeds. Holder never seemed to bother. Of course, he didn't do much of anything else either. He really is a waste.

In terms of politicizing, that is absolutely correct that he is neither the first, the worst nor the only. But he is one of the most blatant and he does himself no credit at all. And if the media wasn't so biased, he would have been brutally exposed time and again.

As for those scandals, it wouldn't surprise me if the next guy (assuming a Republican) does some internal investigations and maybe finds a reason or two to indict Holder.

AndrewPrice said...

Koshcat, Yep. That's him.

Kit said...

It says something when the smartest person in Obama's administration was a holdover from the Bush White House.

EricP said...

Careful, Kit. You never really know who's lurking on the interwebs, and with Gitmo still being open, plus US airstrikes still taking place in the Middle East, you're liable to have super-genius President Sand Trap thinking you're talking about him.

BevfromNYC said...

Hello all! I am back on the grid! The only thing that upsets me about Holder resigning is that my man Preet Bharara is on the short list to replace him. Preet is the NY US Attorney who has been jailing all of our state politicians. It is interesting that he is also aggressively investigating Gov. Cuomo for wrong-doings. It's probably why he's on the short list...to shut him up.

AndrewPrice said...

Kit and Eric, You definitely don't want to upset Obama. It's easier to drone us than it is to actually do something about the world's real problems.

AndrewPrice said...

Bev, Let's hope they leave him in place to keep sending more and more Democrats to jail.

Rustbelt said...

So, the DOJ career of Obama's Luca Brasi now swims with the fishes.
(Sorry, couldn't resist.) Though, like TJed, I'm concerned that Obama could try to put him in either SCOTUS or some other position to continue to punish us for just being around.

Also, Andrew, does "super secret probation" in any way relate to "double secret probation?" (I was tempted to add that Holder and Wormer would make good company. But that would be insulting to one of them; Dean Wormer was a competent bad guy.)

AndrewPrice said...

Rustbelt, He would be a non-started as a SCOTUS appointee. Just being held in contempt of Congress is enough reason for Senate Republicans to never let him come up for a vote. I can't see Obama even trying it. It's much more likely he would pick some under-the-radar commie.

AndrewPrice said...

P.S. Yes, super secret probation is like double secret probation! LOL!

Actually, DOJ has an office that monitors local police forces and at times gets heavily involved in running them. This is usually done either by consent when the departments take federal money for something like a SWAT team or through "consent decrees" where the departments agree to some level of monitoring or control rather than being sued by DOJ for civil rights violations.

el gordo said...

I hold these two things to be self-evident:

First, humans are hardwired to be religious. They have to seek some kind of transcendent meaning at some point. That is why the religious background is not a sideshow but central to society. In history, there have never been truly secular societies, or they existed only for a brief moment. During my lifetime, Christianity has retreated substantially, but it has not been replaced by rationality or even science (for which most people are ill equipped and to which Christianity has never actually been in opposition). It is being replaced by the superstition and paganism which had never gone entirely away: pantheism, the worship of nature, animals, race or nation, vague spirituality. The poisonous ideologies of the 19th and 20th century were ersatz religions to a significant extent.

Second, there are good and bad religions and I consider Christianity and Judaism the good ones, on account of their historic record. Forget the endless whining about crusades and Galilei. Western society exists not in spite of religion but because of it. The view of individual man as being intrinsically valuable, fallen but created in the image of God, the pinnacle of creation, the view of an ordered universe as being subject to rules which can be known by man ... we take all that for granted today but it is what made our civilization great and what others are lacking.

That is why I am not religious but consider myself culturally Judeo-Christian and hate those who denigrate our religion (as opposed to certain practicioners). I could never be part of an organized religion myself. I know this makes me a hypocrite. That´s ok. It is just a matter of historical perspective. I don´t believe society can throw out the faith and keep the values. As the gods of the copybook headings remind us, stick with the devil you know.

el gordo said...

..and of course I meant to publish the above comment on the Religion thread. Stupid! Stupid!

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