Here is today’s column in USA Today calling for the firing of Attorney General Eric Holder (I have added a couple lines removed in editing). Holder is not the only individual who needs to leave federal office but he is the first. Equally responsible are his deputy, James Cole, and Ronald Machen Jr., the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia who played critical roles in the investigation of journalists with Associated Press and Fox News. Notably, Obama reportedly “fired” IRS Director Steve Miller (who was reportedly already leaving) over the IRS scandal though there is no indication of any knowledge on his part. In Holder’s case, he was personally involved in targeting journalists (in the Fox case) and launched an attack on the media that has been condemned by a wide array of public interest and media groups. Yet, Holder has been asked to hold a simple meeting with aggrieved media representatives by Obama.
Recently, Attorney General Eric Holder appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to answer questions about the administration’s sweeping surveillance of journalists with the Associated Press. In the greatest attack on the free press in decades, the Justice Department seized phone records for reporters and editors in at least three AP offices as well as its office in the House of Representatives. Holder, however, proceeded to claim absolute and blissful ignorance of the investigation, even failing to recall when or how he recused himself.
Yet, this was only the latest attack on the news media under Holder’s leadership. Despite his record, he expressed surprise at the hearing that the head of the Republican National Committee had called for his resignation. After all, Holder pointed out, he did nothing. That is, of course, precisely the point. Unlike the head of the RNC, I am neither a Republican nor conservative, and I believe Holder should be fired.
The ‘sin eater’
Holder’s refusal to accept responsibility for the AP investigation was something of a change for the political insider. His value to President Obama has been his absolute loyalty. Holder is what we call a “sin eater” inside the Beltway — high-ranking associates who shield presidents from responsibility for their actions. Richard Nixon had H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. Ronald Reagan had Oliver North and Robert “Bud” McFarlane. George W. Bush had the ultimate sin eater: Dick Cheney, who seemed to have an insatiable appetite for sins to eat.
This role can be traced to 18th century Europe, when families would use a sin eater to clean the moral record of a dying person by eating bread from the person’s chest and drinking ale passed over his body. Back then, the ritual’s power was confined to removing minor sins.
For Obama, there has been no better sin eater than Holder. When the president promised CIA employees early in his first term that they would not be investigated for torture, it was the attorney general who shielded officials from prosecution. When the Obama administration decided it would expand secret and warrantless surveillance, it was Holder who justified it. When the president wanted the authority to kill any American he deemed a threat without charge or trial, it was Holder who went public to announce the “kill list” policy.
Last week, the Justice Department confirmed that it was Holder who personally approved the equally abusive search of Fox News correspondent James Rosen’s e-mail and phone records in another story involving leaked classified information. In the 2010 application for a secret warrant, the Obama administration named Rosen as “an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator” to the leaking of classified materials. The Justice Department even investigated Rosen’s parents’ telephone number, and Holder was there to justify every attack on the news media.
Ignoble legacy
Yet, at this month’s hearing, the attorney general had had his fill. Accordingly, Holder adopted an embarrassing mantra of “I have no knowledge” and “I had no involvement” throughout the questioning. When he was not reciting the equivalent to his name, rank and serial number, he was implicating his aide, Deputy Attorney General James Cole. Cole, it appears, is Holder’s sin eater. Holder was so busy denying responsibility for today’s scandals, he began denying known facts about older scandals. For example, Holder was asked about an earlier scandal in his administration in the handling of the “Fast and Furious” program where guns were allowed to be sold to criminal gangs. Holder insisted that Ronald C. Machen Jr., the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, was not told to decline the prosecution of Holder for contempt of Congress after refusing to turn over key documents and that “[Machen] made the determination about what he was going to do on his own.” However, Holder’s deputy, Cole, wrote to Machen to inform him (before the contempt citation even reached his office) that Main Justice “has determined that the Attorney General’s response to the subpoena . . . does not constitute a crime.”
In the end, Holder was the best witness against his continuing in office. His insistence that he did nothing was a telling moment. The attorney general has done little in his tenure to protect civil liberties or the free press. Rather, Holder has supervised a comprehensive erosion of privacy rights, press freedom and due process. This ignoble legacy was made possible by Democrats who would look at their shoes whenever the Obama administration was accused of constitutional abuses.
On Thursday, Obama responded to the outcry over the AP and Fox scandals by calling for an investigation by … you guessed it … Eric Holder. He ordered Holder to meet with news media representatives to hear their “concerns” and report back to him. He sent his old sin eater for a confab with the very targets of the abusive surveillance. Such an inquiry offers no reason to trust its conclusions.
The feeble response was the ultimate proof that these are Obama’s sins despite his effort to feign ignorance. It did not matter that Holder is the sin eater who has lost his stomach or that such mortal sins are not so easily digested. Indeed, these sins should be fatal for any attorney general.
Jonathan Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, is a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors.
May 29, 2013 USA Today
Darren,
pbh ain’t no troll and when he comes on the board things always get interesting.
test
The wikipedia link pbh provided, quoted Jefferson’s words ” ” … strict observance of the written law is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to the written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the ends to the means.”
But in so doing left out the words that immediately preceded the quote:
” …to assume authorities beyond the law, is easy of solution in principle, but sometimes embarrassing in practice.” (Sept 20, 1810, Thomas Jefferson to John B. Colvin)
mespo,
It’s an appealing word and rather looks like what it means. Also, you used it quite eloquently in your original post which brought a smile to my face after I looked it up.
pbh51,
Again:
Please don’t attempt to hide apologetics behind the race card. It is what it is. You’re not supposed to change your calls on balls and strikes simply because it’s ‘your guy’ who’s in there.
To say that the use of torture and extraordinary rendition; suspending habeas corpus without the existence of insurrection or rebellion; carrying out a policy of warrantless wiretapping as if the 4th Amendment did not exist and issuing executive orders authorizing the extrajudicial execution American citizens is somehow excused because the president is black or ‘they did it first’ is a load of shit and you know it.
But, I hear you say you would “rather have an intelligent, centrist Democrat president using the Constitution as a urinal puck, than a developmentally disabled fake Republican (certainly a fake conservative) liar, war profiteer and mass murderer. (Given the validity of your constitutional complaints, I suppose that BHO is a murderer, but at least a much more selective one, and possibly in the cause of something marginally defensible, morally…like killing our enemies.)”
As you so astutely stated above, the law is the law. And the law is all about the categorical imperative. Accordingly, no matter how much you may plead that your guys are somehow more special than others, that they “don’t deserve this,” that they “were building a house.”
The categorical imperative says “deserve’s got nothing to do with it.”
The law is the law Pete. Take some time to listen to yourself.
“Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.” — Dostoevsky
pbh;
You are not fooling anyone here with your vainglorious attempts at proclamations of your own wit and wisdom. The one that brought up the race issue with regard to Holder was you. You can look at any post I have made in this blog and I and every normal person here does not consider his race to be an issue. But it is with you. Then you runaway with then declaring that you embrace several other races of people and are glad when they embrace the law. The fact that you even brought up the “negro” bit is like looking into the eyes of someone and seeing their soul. And what we can behold is a closeted bigot. (oh, I guess with you souls do not exist and as an extension the allegory to it is just as meaningless to you but might be interesting to others)
Then you make a sophmoric attempt at pointing out logical errors to declare your self perceived victory over others’ arguments.
And like your kindred trolls out there, you don’t even realize that others are looking at you with contempt, because you are in your own mind the smartest one out there. Well good for you. So frankly what would it matter in what me or others here offers as rebuttals to your contentions or positions, because you are going to come up with some jackass response from your jackassed bigoted mouth. And likewise it is just like being out on the ranch and having to endure the braying. It is annoying, but it really doesn’t matter in light of the rest of the world.
So, relegate yourself to your compatriots on stormfront so you can be reunited with your herd.
Eric Holder To Meet With Washington Bureau Chiefs Amid Leak Investigation Criticism (UPDATE)
By Michael Calderone
Posted: 05/29/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/29/eric-holder-bureau-chiefs_n_3352962.html
Excerpt:
NEW YORK — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to meet this week with the Washington bureau chiefs of several major media outlets to discuss the Justice Department’s guidelines for dealing with journalists in leak investigations.
It’s not yet certain exactly when the meeting (or meetings) will take place, but a Justice Department official confirmed to The Huffington Post that it would be sometime over the next two days. Politico’s Mike Allen reported Wednesday morning that the DOJ began contacting bureau chiefs on Tuesday. The Huffington Post’s Washington bureau chief, Ryan Grim, also has been contacted.
The news of a meeting between Holder and the bureau chiefs comes amid widespread criticism from journalists and civil liberties advocates over the DOJ’s seizure of Associated Press phone records and an accusation that Fox News reporter James Rosen could be part of a criminal conspiracy for his reporting.
The fact that Holder is meeting with the bureau chiefs is on the record, but Nanda Chitre, acting director of the DOJ’s public affairs office, confirmed to The Huffington Post that the meeting itself will be off the record. Media organizations, however, will surely want such a newsworthy meeting with the attorney general to be on the record, and it remains to be seen if they will agree to meet under off-the-record ground rules.
Washington Bureau Chiefs Amid Leak Investigation Criticism (UPDATE)
by Michael Calderone
Posted: 05/29/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/29/eric-holder-bureau-chiefs_n_3352962.html
Excerpt:
NEW YORK — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to meet this week with the Washington bureau chiefs of several major media outlets to discuss the Justice Department’s guidelines for dealing with journalists in leak investigations.
It’s not yet certain exactly when the meeting (or meetings) will take place, but a Justice Department official confirmed to The Huffington Post that it would be sometime over the next two days. Politico’s Mike Allen reported Wednesday morning that the DOJ began contacting bureau chiefs on Tuesday. The Huffington Post’s Washington bureau chief, Ryan Grim, also has been contacted.
The news of a meeting between Holder and the bureau chiefs comes amid widespread criticism from journalists and civil liberties advocates over the DOJ’s seizure of Associated Press phone records and an accusation that Fox News reporter James Rosen could be part of a criminal conspiracy for his reporting.
The fact that Holder is meeting with the bureau chiefs is on the record, but Nanda Chitre, acting director of the DOJ’s public affairs office, confirmed to The Huffington Post that the meeting itself will be off the record. Media organizations, however, will surely want such a newsworthy meeting with the attorney general to be on the record, and it remains to be seen if they will agree to meet under off-the-record ground rules.
Geeba Geeba,
Whom did I “pigeonhole?” My…you made your “Aryan” comment to me without using the words Nazi or Hitler. Brava!
From 2001-2008…the FBI engaged in a pattern of intelligence violations, including violations of oversight guidelines, misuse of National Security Letters, violations of constitution, FISA, etc.
… https://www.eff.org/wp/patterns-misconduct-fbi-intelligence-violations …
FBI investigated Amerikan citizens for exercising 1st Amendment rights…
… http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/18/politics/18protest.html?oref=login&_r=2& …
Darren Smith 1, May 29, 2013 at 4:10 pm
“Please let us know your true feelings about, as you say, a “Negro is enforcing it.” or that “a negro is in power”.
And, by the way, I don’t notice you responding to the real point in the post to which you refer, which is that the law itself is an abuse.
Which is to say that it apparently matters more to you who is in charge than the actual rules of the game.
pbh
woody voinche 1, May 29, 2013 at 5:00 pm
“Use of any federal agency…the IRS, FBI, CIA, NSA…to investigate and intimidate any Amerikan citizen simply for exercising 1st amendment rights is unconstitutional . . . ”
The list of false assumptions built into this half statement is longer than I can outline here. Let me just start with the fact that there is no such thing as an “Amerikan” citizen.
I will leave it at that.
pbh
mespo727272 1, May 29, 2013 at 4:11 pm
“That term went out of vogue about 40 years ago. A lot like pbh’s mindset.”
As Steve Martin once said, “Comedy is not pretty.”
Imagine, you don’t fathom the reason why I might choose to use a word that is no longer in “vogue” to describe a behavior pattern that is kinda built on that out of “vogue” perspective. How peculiar of me.
pbh
Use of any federal agency…the IRS, FBI, CIA, NSA…to investigate and intimidate any Amerikan citizen simply for exercising 1st amendment rights is unconstitutional and this citizen should have legal recourse against this agency, but none of the pundits critical of Holder seem to want to
apply the same standard to the Bush administration…and engage in a sin of ommission when they dont discuss this in the context of the Bush administration who used the IRS, FBI, CIA, and NSA to try to intimidate critics of some of his policies
… http://www.alternet.org/bush-used-irs-fbi-cia-and-secret-service-go-after-opponents-where-was-fox-and-gop-outrage …
Otteray Scribe 1, May 29, 2013 at 4:19 pm
“Stormfront is that way ———->>>
“Hell is that way ↓”
News Flash! There Ain’t No Hell. ∞
pbh
Geeba Geeba 1, May 29, 2013 at 4:26 pm
“I still say that I the killer “grand plan” would be mine, as follows:
“1) Total repeal of the Patriot Act in tandem, and only in tandem with ….
“2) Total repeal of the Affordable Care Act.”
Right. Because a minimum level of health care for every citizen is just as evil as a totalitarian surveilance state empowered to murder its own citizens for thought crimes.
Your “logic” is irrefutable.
pbh
mespo727272 1, May 29, 2013 at 4:10 pm
“Your wiki research notwithstanding, a federal district judge may not violate one law to effectuate another one. Chilling the First Amendment with tenuously reasoned intrusions into the affairs of the press via a court order doesn’t withstand any First Amendment analysis.”
Dude:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Constitution_is_not_a_suicide_pact
pbh
Darren Smith 1, May 29, 2013 at 4:10 pm
“pbh51:
“Please let us know your true feelings about, as you say, a “Negro is enforcing it.” or that “a negro is in power”.
“I would enjoy reading your views on the matter.”
Okay.
I think we are better off when “Negro”/”Hispanic”/and/or “Asian” people have the opportunity and/or obligation to enforce the laws that we the people passed in the democratic process. It shows that this or that ethnic minority has embraced the law, the Constitution and the society they are designed to protect.
You have a problem with that?
pbh
Ralph: