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MSNBC Political Analyst and Georgetown Professor Calls Holder “The Moses Of Our Time”

holdereric170px-rembrandt_harmensz-_van_rijn_079-1In the last couple weeks, it has been astonishing to watch Democrats once again abandoning a core principle — in this case the protection of the free press — to excuse another abuse of the Obama Administration. The new talking point for defenders of the Obama Administration is that it is really not that bad to seize the records of journalists or label a journalist a potential criminal co-conspirator so long as they are not actually prosecuted. None however are quite so adamant as Georgetown Professor and MSNBC Political Analyst Michael Eric Dyson who called Eric Holder our “law giver” and “the Moses of our time.” In this case, of course, Moses came down from the mountain and endorsed the killing of any citizen deemed a national security threat, allowed warrantless surveillance, blocked public interest challenges to abuses of power, and attacked the free press. While some of us believe Holder should be fired, Dyson apparently believes Holder should be be beatified.

Here is Dyson holding forth on the miracle that is Holder:

mqdefault MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: I think the attorney general should step down too – off of that plateau where he resides in high principle and whip some head. But he shouldn’t give up his office. What he should understand is he’s the chief law giver of the United States of America so to speak. He’s the Moses of our time, and at least for this administration.

So, yes, some people want to put him outside of the ark of the legal community. That’s just ridiculous. He is the bully, he is in one sense the whipping boy for so much of the frustration of the right-wing. As Joy Reid has brilliantly indicated, their inability to reconcile themselves to the fact they lost the election means that they will be perennially pursuing a person like an Eric Holder. In sense, they perceive him to be the most vulnerable. They attack him. But I think what he has to do is continue to hold fast. I think the president has given strong indication that he will support Mr. Holder, and, therefore, together they should go forward.

And here’s the real problem. The real problem is it’s not against the law to leak classified information. That’s what we need to get into our sights here. That what we need to do is shore up the law. Not figure out how to scandalize the name of Eric Holder or President Obama. Let’s deal with the undergirding legal principles that are not present, and as a result of that figure out a way to get beyond this morass. Otherwise we’re going to repeat this in the next administration and the administration after that as well.

Dyson captures particularly the cult of personality surrounding this president. Not even the protection of the free press is enough to break faith with this president. By the way, last time I check, leaking classified information was a crime so we can move beyond the view that “The real problem is it’s not against the law to leak classified information.” Moreover, in our tripartite system, Holder is not a law giver of any kind. He is supposed to be enforcing the laws given by others — specifically the legislative branch — and of course protecting the Constitution.

As I mentioned in my surprising disagreement with CNN’s Jeff Tobin last night on the Situation Room, no one denies that such leaks can be crimes. It is how they are investigated. There was no excuse for this fishing expedition into the records of journalists. Also, Bashir joins Dyson in mocking the concerns of journalists that the Administration searched these records since the targets were not prosecuted. He laughed with Dyson at the fact that Rosen was described as a potential criminal co-conspirator. It is perfectly other worldly. The free press rests on guarantees of confidentiality. The administration attacked that guarantee and in so doing created a chilling effect on the work of all reporters.

As for Moses, I shudder to think who Dyson considers to be the Messiah that Holder is foretelling . . . but I can guess.

107 thoughts on “MSNBC Political Analyst and Georgetown Professor Calls Holder “The Moses Of Our Time””

  1. The Corporate/Military/Evangelical Oligarchy buys the Republicans and rents the Democrats. Either way, welcome to:

    The Gelded Age
    (From The Triumph of Strife: an homage to Dante Alighieri and Percy Shelley — lines 575-588)

    The tiny Texas tyro’s tantrums taint
    What once our country held in wise reserve
    Into a corner he proceeds to paint

    The nation’s laws he idly swore to serve
    Which leaves them less than merely empty noise
    Precocious playthings pious pimps preserve

    To feather friendly nests requires such ploys
    As ex-post-facto, one-time-only laws
    What Gelded Age has known such jaded joys?

    Like signing statutes stuffed with special flaws
    Designed by thieves to make theft less a chore
    Posterity our politician paws

    Removing risk from crimes that heretofore
    Contained at least enough as not to bore.

    Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright 2006-2010

    or:

    The Times that Buy Men’s Souls
    (From The Triumph of Strife: an homage to Dante Alighieri and Percy Shelley — lines 295-350)

    The chicken hawks who clucked and glared for war
    Have bastardized their ornithology
    And now these clipped capons claim they want more

    Of all those things that they have had for free:
    Our billions and our blood to make a mess,
    A feckless f***-up for the world to see,

    Which they intend to trumpet as success
    Or else drag out until the sun grows old
    So they can leave the stage and not confess

    To all the theft that tales have ever told
    Or all the murders sticking to their hands
    Which they’ll deny until the stars are cold.

    Their scrawny sinews strong as rubber bands,
    Stretch tight to snap as justice now demands.

    The times that buy men’s souls do not produce
    Those wooden ships and iron men who sail
    But tend with limpid leisure to induce

    A pallid pompous pride in princes pale:
    Aristocratic Ahabs who set course
    To wind up in the belly of a whale.

    Like Reagan riding backwards on his horse
    They spend our money first then borrow more,
    And let the future scream, “Stop, thief!” till hoarse,

    Too late to stop the looting of the store.
    The country on the auction block now goes
    To pay for shattered, splintered bones galore:

    A tide of reddish ink and blood that flows;
    “Insurgents” growing strong in their last throes.

    Careerism let loose to bow and bend
    Like Vietnam corrupts the very soul
    Of armies built to run around the end

    But sent to dig and then defend a hole
    While somewhere up the chain Great Leader spawns
    Grim groupies groping up the greasy pole.

    Responsibility devolves to pawns
    Who shoulder heavy loads with stoic grace
    While sprints, once started, morph to marathons

    Unending runs designed to save some face.
    They’ve little but their own careers at stake
    So best for them a journey not a race.

    With butter gone and only guns to bake
    They stoop to say that we should eat more cake.

    The summer sunshine salesmen proudly pose
    Soliciting subservience on cue,
    And pledge allegiance to whomever chose

    To pay what they consider as their due:
    A tiny tithe to tide them over times
    Till they can fleece the flock that has no clue

    About the nature of the shearing crimes
    That prey on innocence naïve and blind.
    A leper’s bell that fear and loathing chimes

    To warn of something stumbling up behind:
    Leviathan whose mighty manic rage
    Now fuels a sloppy schizophrenic mind

    Ignoring all advice from wisdom sage:
    A needless, noxious plague upon an age.

    Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright 2006-2010

  2. I told my Taiwanese wife about the Obama/Holder policy of persecuting powerless individuals (like Pvt Bradley Manning and Julian Assange) as an object lesson to those higher up in the Oligarchy’s pecking order who might disclose the real corporate crime spree that goes by the misnomer of “government” in the United States today. I said to her: “This sounds just like the Chinese proverb: ‘Kill the chicken, scare the monkey,'” to which she replied: “What do the monkeys think will happen when KFC* runs out of chickens?”

    *note: “KFC” stands for “Kill, Fleece, and Choke,” i.e., the Corporate/Military Oligarchy of the United States

  3. Len, I was going to post that funny Mel Brooks bit on the 10 Commandments too. A classic movie moment.

  4. And this is why tenure is a bad idea.

    BTW Max-1, I always felt that portion of Caberet was chilling. The Hilter Youth cheering on their impending world domination while the old geezer knew that his tomorrows were few to be had. Now I’m that guy.
    Boo-frickin’ hoo. Thanks for the inspirational video. BTW, I wonder if that young tenor became Dr. Strangelove in later years. Chilling!

  5. That professor clarifies one thing.

    It’s difficult for people of color to accept that they’ve waited so long for this moment, only to fall so short.

  6. G.Mason
    1, May 31, 2013
    I agree. I wrote my Senators back in 2003 when the spying was being revealed. Then the torture was revealed. I wrote about principles and standing in community. About how not enforcing proper oversight and replacing it with a “yes sir” willingness to “get along” and “compromise” will ultimately be our Nation’s undoing. Both Senators, Democrats, I had voted for in the past and in my letter I reminded them that should the wish to have my vote again, they must proceed to apply pressure upon the House and their fellow Senators for true accountability for High Crimes; Warrantless spying on Americans in violation of FISA, torture of prisoners (some died due to the torture, itself), the institutional use of medical teams to help/assist in the torture, detaining prisoners w/out charges, etc. I then also wrote and meet with my House Rep. I and a group of individuals meet with him for about an hour, discussing principles, law and what accountability looks like. He too, a Democrat, was reminded by me, that in his next election the vote I cast will be about how true he is to the principles he signed onto when he swore an Oath.

    He has been the only, ONLY Democrat I have ever voted for since 2003. Before then, I voted straight Party ticket thinking the “Party” held my principles nearest their bosom… Then came Senator Obama making excuses for Republicans AND Democrats, alike. Then every body loved him for that. I knew then, the game was over.

    IMO, Obama is the best Republican president since Lincoln.

    And yes, we’ve seen this before…

  8. The “CULT of PERSONALITY” …
    … “It’s never illegal when my team captain does it.”

  11. AY,

    Nah, you haven’t misread ’em … the race issue is for others to debate. But come on, posters like Sam are just a hoot … SwM is an @ss and I’m a blowhard … easy-peasy.

  12. Where do you get one of those bumper stickers…. I want one for historical value….it’s kinda like can a black business owner refuse service to a klanman….

  13. Published on Friday, May 31, 2013 by The Guardian/UK

    President Obama Uses a Sledgehammer Against Dissent

    From Jeremy Hammond to Bradley Manning and the AP, Obama’s ‘assault on journalism’ is a threat to our democracy

    by Amy Goodman

    https://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/31

    President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have used the Espionage Act six times to prosecute whistle-blowers – more than all previous presidents combined. Obama’s assault on journalism and his relentless war on whistle-blowers are serious threats to fundamental democratic principles on which this nation was founded.

    The job of journalists is to hold those in power accountable. Our job is to be the fourth estate, not “for the state.” Let us be.

  14. Sam and the rest of you squares: the video starring Glozell is perfect satire. Glozell is one of the best black satirists on the web. The fact that you squares actually think that her Obamacare video is not satire shows just how clueless you are. As for me, it’s back to the ‘hood. Over and out.

  15. Sam,

    You are funny…. While I agree with a majority if what you’ve said… You have crossed the line as nick stated…. You’re doing good otherwise….

    Nick,

    Sam has stated some good things… We are all in and on a learning curve…

    Jill,

    I agree with everything you’ve said… You are wise in all of what you’ve said….

    Blouise,

    There is some truth to what everyone has stated… I agree with Sam and Jill that this is not a racial issue with Holder or Obama with most folks at this time…. Sure there are fringe idiots that turn this into (a) partisan issue(s)…. You’ve even stated in as much that’s part of the problem we are experiencing. Or maybe I’ve misread your posts…

  17. ” But its ignorant to assume one race is more racists than the other.”

    Well, actually, racism is all about power. When one group has enough power that they can control the lives an group (or groups) based on race, that is racism. In this country, it is a powerful white elite that write the laws and enforce them. This same group decides who gets help from government and/or private sources. It was a long struggle to get rid of white imposed slavery on Blacks and Natives. It was a long struggle to get rid of “Jim Crow” laws. It was a long struggle to laws outlawing bank red lining, discrimination in housing, school admission, jobs, etc. Such discrimination still exists in Congress and various state legislatures that continue to pass laws that unfairly target the poor and non-white members of our population. Just take a look at who’s in prison if the words don’t work. The proportion of Black and Brown and Red in our prisons is way higher than their proportion of the population as a whole. THAT is racism.

  18. “Bush/Cheney took a very Nixonian approach. President Obama, while clearly and wisely eschewing the Nixonian style, has been far more aggressive than all his predecessors in prosecuting leakers. This has been troubling to those of us who want more, rather than less, government transparency. I believe I understand why this has happened, and I will explain both what has happened and why in Part II of this series of columns, which will appear here on Justia’s Verdict on June 14.” -John Dean

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