Now that we are in the formative stages of the
2016 Presidential Election Season, it’s fair to say Hillary Clinton is without
question the person Republicans want most to remand to ranks of permanently
unemployed Democratic politicians. To be
more specific, they want to make certain that she does not succeed in her still
unannounced (wink-wink) quest to succeed President Obama as our nation’s Commander-in-Chief.
Interestingly, however, that is not the Party
of the Elephant Symbol’s most puzzling paradox.
Mrs. Clinton, while biding her time, and artfully evading, or
strategically answering the faux indignation laced questions of Republicans and
Fox News anchors, and analysts-in-training, is the odds-on favorite to capture
the Democratic Party nomination. She
will almost certainly reveal her intentions to pursue the nomination…eventually,
in other words, in her own good time.
However, let’s be clear, Attorney General (AG)
Eric Holder is the current administration staffer not named Barack Obama that
the GOP most wants to assume the title, “former administration official.” One does not have to wonder hard or long to
about why the GOP harbors so much enmity against Mr. Holder.
A quick look at his Ivy League pedigree, his
resume, his distinguished accomplishments, including rising to the highest
level of federal government administration, his bold policy initiatives, and
his unflappably frank discourse on matters of race and diversity in America and
its legal system, show him to be a man of character, courage, and conviction;
very much like the man who nominated him, President Obama. That pretty much says it all. That they are
close personal friends adds injury to insult to the Party that detests him.
Yes, he is the face of “Fast and Furious
(F&F),” the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Agency gunwalking
scandal, not the movie franchise. The initiative
derived its name because ATF agents discovered the prime suspect, Jacob
Chambers, belonged to a car club. Of
course, like a lot of the Obama Administration’s trenchant problems, F&F
dates back to the Bush Administration, launching in 2006. As much as anything else, AG Holder routinely
serves as a lightning rod for all the things many Republicans hate about
President Obama…and then some.
For all the pushback President Obama received
as a result of his comments about Skip Gates, the Harvard Professor who was
harassed by a Cambridge police officer while attempting to enter his own home, about
Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen murdered by George Zimmerman, and anything
else regarding race relations in America, he really has tread lightly when it comes
to the subject. AG Holder, on the other
hand, not fettered by the constraints of the Oval Office, has on occasion
spoken bluntly and directly about the issue.
In a February 19, 2009 speech commemorating
Black History Month, the first speech after his confirmation, he said to an
overflow crowd at he Justice Department (DOJ):
"Though this nation has proudly
thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always
been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards."
He added:
"On Saturdays and Sundays, America
in the year 2009 does not, in some ways, differ significantly from the country
that existed some 50 years ago. This is truly sad."
Earlier this
month, AG Holder’s DOJ released twin reports on the Ferguson Missouri Police
Department. One found that Officer
Darren Wilson did not violate Michael Brow’s civil rights when he shot
him. The report effectively validated
the findings of the Grand Jury, which opted not to indict Wilson. Conservatives far and wide hailed this
report. They concluded, wrongly in my opinion
that the officer acted properly in killing Wilson. I believe he profiled Wilson as policemen in
Ferguson did to blacks for years, and had every opportunity to call for backup
before confronting the suspects alone in that neighborhood. This however is a discussion for another
time.
In the other
report, of which conservatives tend to either overlook, or offer scathing
reviews, the DOJ found the Ferguson Police Department had routinely and
consistent violated the civil rights of African Americans for many years. I posted about the report on March 4th
(http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com/2015/03/04/ferguson-the-department-of-justice-speaks/),
so I will not re-plow that field. You
can check it out at you leisure, in the event you missed it.
Suffice it to
say, opposition to Mr. Holder is and has been intense. The Republican led House of Representatives
held him in criminal contempt of Congress in 2012. When he announced his resignation last
September, House Judiciary Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) said he “Welcome(d) the
news.”
Here’s the
rub. If there is one person the GOP
disdains more than AG Holder, it is President Obama. Much of the Party’s Leadership coalesced to
forge a pact aimed at denying President Obama any victories, and limiting to
one term. Clearly, they failed in both
endeavors, but apparently they believe in the axiom, “Nothing beats a failure,
but a try.” Hence, they continue to
persevere and try. As a result of this
anti-Obama compulsion, they are delaying Ms. Lynch’s Confirmation Hearings.
Senate
Majority Leader Mitch Connell (R-KY), told CNN’s Dana Bash, on this past Sunday’s
“State of the Union” Show, he plans to hold up Ms. Lynch’s confirmation until
the Senate passes a controversial human trafficking bill. In his words:
"This will have an impact on the
timing of considering a new attorney general.
I had hoped to turn to her next week, but if we can't finish the
trafficking bill, she will be put off again."
It has already
been 160 days since President Obama nominated Ms. Lynch. This is already the longest delay in
confirming an AG since President Reagan nominated Edwin Meese in 1985, thirty
years ago.
Undoubtedly,
from a GOP standpoint, the best thing about Ms. Lynch is she is not AG
Holder. It is generally anticipated that
once the hearings convene, she will be confirmed. However, the irony is, the longer the GOP
delays the probable, if not inevitable, the longer Eric Holder retains the
title United States Attorney General.
Works for me! In fact, I like to
call this deluded detour from responsible governance and common sense, “Eric Holder/Loretta Lynch: The Contrarians’ Confounding Conundrum!”
I’m done;
holla back!
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