Discussion for article #228082
Holder was at his most polarizing when he spoke about race. His first major speech, in February 2009, won praise from African-Americans and angered conservatives — he said the United States was a “nation of cowards” in failing to confront issues of race head-on. Republicans never forgave him.
Holder was sooo right. The GOP could not stand the thought of a black man being the highest law enforcement official in the land any more than they can stand a black president/Commander in Chief.
I guess the GOP would love to go back to their heyday of Edwin Meese or John Mitchell… Every normal and decent American should reflect on how pleasant it has been to have an AG who was not a vicious, narrow minded prude sticking his nose in everyone else’s business or an outright crook like Mitchell.
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I really like Holder, and will miss him. He was so unflappable. I loved it when he got the right wingers foaming at the mouth. As for going after leakers–I am not the civil libertarian that I should be, because I do feel that the US, rightly or wrongly, has grievous enemies, and when leaks compromise intelligence, as was the case with Snowden, that really scares me.
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winding down a six-year reign
Oh for fuck’s sake Sahil.
“Reign”…?
Why not go all in with your Conservative-addled language playbook?
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For all the shit he has swallowed he deserves the MOH.
History will look kindly on Holder.
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“The country’s first black attorney general”: May his tribe increase!
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His departing comment to Texas Rep. Gohmert, after one of those house inquisition, was pitch perfect “good luck with your asparagus”…all you nasty RWNJ wanker, i will add
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Holder was asleep at the wheel. He had a chance to deal with the Wall Street Criminals - he passed. Gun Control - he passed. War criminals Bush, Chaney and Rumdumb - he passed. NSA spying on Americans in direct violation of the Constitution - he passed. Asleep at the wheel for the most important issues.
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Yeah, I winced at that, too. Why not “tenure”?
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President Obama promised the American people the most transparent administration in history. Holder’s legacy? “Aggressively prosecuting” those who have pointed out to us that it isn’t actually so.
I’m not sure we’re better off for that.
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Aah…but look behind you and see multitude of African-American, the downtrodden, LGBT folks and others, saddened to see Holder go. Your down note or trepidation on what he’s left undone cannot match the heavy hearts of that non-white masses, so…
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How was he to enact gun control. Please tell.
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I thought the first four years under Obama and mr holder allowed white people to get away with murder. however the next four years, it seemed the administration stopped listening to mr mustache (ie axelrod or better yet black is bad) and started caring about the minority communities
“…the next four years…”
Wow, that was a long nap. Here I thought it was still 2014.
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There is always more that could have been done, and different priorities for different folks. But I hate that he is leaving now in the middle of these civil rights probes into the fascist American police forces – most of them just getting started.
Citizens really have no recourse but the Department of Justice against corrupt and fascist local and state police. And that helped a lot in the 60’s but the task was never completed. And we haven’t had an Attorney General in my lifetime to stand against the radical militarization of our police. And it’s gone from bad to worse and even worse since the 1980’s and we’ve had nothing but rightwing AGs since then, except Reno and civil rights just wasn’t her thing.
So yeah, I wished he would have roasted the Bush regime and jailed all the Wall Street banksters, but I’m grateful for his work on LGBT rights, sentencing, civil rights. On balance, he has been the finest AG in my lifetime, and I’ll remember him well. Good luck with your asparagus, Mr. Holder.
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Reign was used in Ilya Shapiro’s Eric Holder=George Wallace piece for Cato.
So, is our Sahil plagiarizing, agreeing, or hopefully just insensitive to nuance?
True. His record is decidedly mixed. He let Wall St. go on unhindered. He went after the whistleblowers but not after the miscreants they exposed. Those two things themselves did a lot to make our society the godawful mess that it is now. He has done diddley squat about the repub attempt to force women into servitude.
On the other hand he surprisingly stepped up against voter suppression. And he has tried to make the sentencing regulations a bit more realistic. Has he done anything else of note?
I don’t think that you’ll have to worry too much about his work going unfinished. If he is going to stay on til his successor is named, then he will be there a long time. On one hand the RWNJs are happy to see him go, but with any luck, Obama will nominate someone who they hate even worse. That is called a dilemma.
Was my thought as well. I can see it dragging on for a long long time.
Maddow had a couple of good pieces on the Holder DoJ, much of which I hadn’t remembered, didn’t know, or appreciated the insight. In the first segment she reminded us about what a shithole was the DoJ of 2009 after Alberto Gonzales used it as a campaign vehicle for incompetent cronies. The second goes to his true accomplishments and here’s the link http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/watch/holder-set-a-tone-unlike-any-other-ag-333665347611
If you have time, watch the first segment as well. You get some amusing loooey in there as well.
don’t we love pedantic people - this is exactly why Washington is so dysfunctional, to many handlers splice words so they can make a big deal out of nothing