You know many of Obama’s cabinet picks have been remarkably well received. They are receiving support from disparate quarters and have pleasantly surprised many who did not even vote for him. I say good on ya, Mr. President-Elect.
Maybe it is because so few of his nominations are controversial, that the really disappointing nomination of Eric Holder to be the Attorney General, brought in to clean up and revitalize a badly damaged DOJ, stands out like a sore thumb? I, and a few brave compatriots here on this blog have been a tiny–yet vocal–minority trying to push the President-Elect to consider a more inspirational AG nominee.
Well, President-Elect Obama may not have heard us, but Arlen Specter (on his own, or maybe he’s a closet firepup?) has put a hold on Holder’s nomination hearings. They were originally scheduled for early January, so Holder could be at his desk on Jan. 20th.
Specter is now saying he needs time to review voluminous records and the hearings cannot go forward any sooner that Jan. 26th. Specter’s primary gripe about Holder was doing an end run around USAO SDNY on the Rich pardon.
Specter, a former prosecutor himself, said he was troubled that Holder did not stand up to President Clinton on the pardon of Rich, who was a fugitive living abroad at the time of the pardon.
"To run counter to the views of the [law enforcement] professionals is a red flag," Specter said. "We’re looking at a very, very serious matter."
Stay tuned. This maybe a popcorn worthy event….
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I think it was the banana peelings done at FDL
Keep the heat on!!
Have the Clintons yet released the names of “contributors” and amounts contributed to the “William Jefferson Clinton Foundation” which is turn funds the “Clinton Initiative” which in turn serves as the platform for the Clintons making their contacts to charge 250k and up for “speaking fees”. How much of this “speaking fee” money went to the failed Clintons presidential campaign. And will Specter look at the Rich pardon and what contributions, if any, were made to the “foundation” in connection with the pardon. Maybe time to call the Clintons in for testimony on the Rich pardon, a welcome development if that is the plan.
It would be nice if Obama does advance another candidate for AG…!
Wonder if Snarlin Arlen will fold as easily for Obama as he did for W.
Yeah, it would be nice
Oh, I thought Obama was supposed to be savvy enuf to have vetted his appointees with the relevant players in congress.
Digg please – we’re early on this story.
Clinton Names donors to Global Initiative Meeting.
Fitz? as AG? OK, who knows where he stands ideologically, but he does seem to have some integrity.
Of course the Pardon deal was just wrong, but it’s the Chiquita terror which should be front and center.
I wonder if Snarlin’ Arlen is just helping out with another single diversionary bullet maneuver here.
Maybe not this one? Maybe he thought because Holder was such and insiders insider that no one inside would object to him?
I dunno
Too lazy to look, but I seem to remember commenters saying that in the early days when you were first writing posts objecting to Holder. Just reminding them.
At this point b/c of all the Blago mess, Obama really can’t take Pat out of Chicago w/o looking like Obama has something to hide. So, maybe not Pat for the first AG of the Obama administration, but he MIGHT be in the running to be the second AG if the first one either burns out (it’s gonna be a tough job b/c the dept. is so demoralized) of leaves under a cloud.
Not the foundation and misleading disclosure since it only concerns the Hong Kong meeting. Was the Hong Kong meeting also funded by the foundation?
Still waiting for the names of all contributors to the foundation, which the Clintons have heretofore refused to disclose. Did you catch the 250k speaking fee in KL as the Clintons circled through HK? But I am really interested in the Rich pardon and the connection, if any, to the foundation. I would really hope that Specter calls in the Clintons for testimony on the Rich pardon and opens up that pardon to full scrutiny. What a bonanza that would be. No wonder the Clintons will not resign the senate seat until HRC is confirmed but all this could come out after her confirmation
I think Specter, who was visibly moved (seemed to choke up a little) by the Comey testimony about standing up to Bush/Cheney over NSA spying, is planning to compare and contrast Comey and Holder in a way that will not be flattering to Holder.
Yes, the Chiquita stuff is as bad or worse–and don;t anybody give me that crap about giving his client a zealous defense. his client was the company, he threw his client under the bus to protect the executives who authorized the payments to terrorists, terrorists who murdered union organizers who were trying to get decent waged for banana pickers.
The execs got off scot-free. The Corporation, Holder’s client, took the hit.
good point. who else do you think? Maybe Specter wants the job. PA Guv Ed Rendell’s a Dem right? Sure, we’ll take his senate seat….. just kidding.
Obama may pull this nomination because he needs his team ready to go on the 20th.
Republicans don’t have any philosophical problem with lawyers who represent shady corporate clients (aka their key constituency). Anything that links a nominee to alleged Clinton wrongdoing is another matter. The fact that Bush is likely to exit amid a blizzard of questionable pardons makes no difference because IOIYAR.
Makes sense, but I sure would like to see Fitz as AG.
What will you do when you don’t have the Clintons to blame for all the evil in the world anymore? However will you survive it?
Would be nice if his motives were pure. I don’t trust Arlen at all. WOuld love to see Holder dropped from consideration as much as you.
I guess it’s time to keep up the Chiquita posts… and claim victory later, even if Arlen wins it for us. *g*
I wondered about that. Of course the best thing would be for Holder to simply withdraw.
Same here. That would really punch a hole in the wingnut blather about Obama supposedly wanting to fire Fitz.
Arlen’s probably no worse than some of our own. He suffers from the same spinal column liquification syndrome.
Who’s worse arlene ,Holder or alberto. Funny you couldn’t find your moral outrage back then but what would one expect from a person with duel citizenship? This creep, my senator, is always against the best interests of the USA as his support of clarence over Anita Hill shows. Single bullet, sure.
So if not Holder, and if not Fitz, then . . . ?
*sigh* Apparently, Leahy thinks Holder is just the guy to clean up the DoJ…
My respect for Leahy is diminishing…
Yes, but the Ds spinelessness is party neutral, or perhaps more favorable to Rs than to Ds. Wonder if Specter’s isn’t more partial to Rs than to Ds.
When will that be? Not a plausible hypothetical. Given my age and the machinations of the Clintons, I will not live to see what you propose.
I’d like to see Bill Clinton nominated for AG. It would push a lot of wingnuts completely off the edge. Rush, Hannity, and Billo (for starters) would probably have to be institutionalized.
Comey ! Comey!, Comey !
and let’s give David Yglesias a Dept Head slot – isn’t there a Public Corruption Division ?
My first choice is Comey. A lot of talent, who had worked in DOJ and even the US Attorney’s Offices through both Dem and Rep admins, fled once they realized what was happening to DOJ.
If Comey came back, I think he could coax a lot of that talent back.
Maybe someone like George Mitchell. After Iran Contra the CIA was in a similar kind of disrepute and Judge Webster was asked to move over from FBI to CIA to restore a sense of integrity and stability there. Mitchell could be that sort of father figure at DOJ.
Names I expected to hear floated and didn’t include Dave Kelley who successfully prosecuted the first WTC bombing and who had the idea for starting a counter – terrorism unit at SDNY and went on to co-found that unit with PatFitz.
What we are seeing is the Establishment folding back in on itself. Outsiders need not apply.
like you stood up to GWB on Torture ? Gonzales ?, Mukasey ? or how ’bout that time you stood up to Orin Hatch and didn’t allow him to change the Confirmation by Senate Vote language – oh wait !
Holder might do a good job – we simply don’t know that one way or the other. The problem is his baggage right now. Obama had some reason for choosing him and I don’t think it was so that he could do a bad job.
barbara – my ‘puter done lost it’s mind on FF again – my 35 was not in response to you ...sigh
S’all right. Happens in the best of families! *g*
I didn’t imply that Holder would do a ‘Bad Job’, rather, a mediocre job when we truly need a super star…!
naaaww ..when you’re hiring a new sheriff to clean up the mess and you start ..considering the chiquita escapade ..and the rich pardon .. i think holder lacks the essential ethical integrity to lead DoJ out of the swamp..
some statured legal lawman of reknowned integrity is what’s required methinks .. not some near-sullied former gunfighter-for-hire ..
holder isn’t from the wyatt earp or pat garrett mold … so to speak ..
barak needs to give that marshal’s badge to someone else ..
You are throwing you lot in with Sector due to your hatred of the Clinton’s.
Politics does make strange bedfellows but at some point you become a whore.
You want to support a Republican stall tactic to try and embarrassed Obama? You can’t see the Rethugs want to continue to raise “doubts” about “that one” judgement.
We don’t always get what we want, so dance with the one that bring us, support Obama’s nominations.
Bill Clinton is a disbarred attorney who is not licensed to practice law. He would have to apply for readmission to the Bar,
Thanks for that. I was trying to figure out a polite way of saying that.
Total OT w/apology. Where’s Scarecrow? Just realize I haven’t seen a Scarecrow post/comment for . . . a long time?
Wyatt Earp and his brothers were two-bit thugs.
I think Michael Ratner would clean up the mess:
Michael Ratner (born 1943, Cleveland, Ohio) is an attorney, adjunct professor of law at Columbia University Law School, and president of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a non-profit human rights litigation organization based in New York, New York.
He was co-counsel in representing the Guantanamo Bay detainees in the United States Supreme Court, where, in June 2004, the court decided his clients have the right to test the legality of their detentions in court. Ratner is also a past president of the National Lawyers Guild and the author of numerous books and articles, including the books Against War with Iraq and Guantanamo: What the World Should Know, and a textbook on international human rights. Ratner is also the co-host of the radio program, Law and Disorder. He and three other attorneys host the Pacifica radio show that reports legal developments related to civil liberties, civil rights and human rights.
Ratner is the brother of radio talk show host and Fox News contributor Ellen Ratner, as well as New Jersey Nets owner Bruce Ratner.
I think compared to Comey [Higazy, Padilla (detention) Padilla (presser and misreps), Arar affidavit, Torture Haynes support, Telecom Amnesty support, etc., etc.] Holder actually looks pretty good, but I’d like to see someone who looks better than either get the slot. If wishes were horses though.
In addition to Specter, hasn’t Grassley said he’s going to pushback some on holder? He’s judiciary too, isn’t he?
Who do we end up with as acting if there is not Holder ready to hop? Mukasey still? His DAG?
Is there any word, too, about Obama’s picks for DAG and Solic Gen etc.? Sure would be nice to have a crew good to go asap, but it will be what it will be. I think on torture, Holder would probably be better than not only a Comey (who doesn’t seem to lose much sleep over the victims of his DOJ and does seem much more worried over insulating ‘his guys’ – Thompson, Ashcroft, Biskupic etc from bad PR) but better than what I think might be the other holdover options while the confirmations pitch.
BTW – I really truly do not believe that it was blogs and pushback that got Brennan tanked. I think they made a convenient reason, but I think some of what is going on overseas and what may come out from some of those proceedings likely had more of an impact on the use of Tenet’s lieutenant – but that’s jmo.
28 – Leahy almost singlehandedly kept torture boy Haynes off the 4th Cir.
Heh. Just the thought of it. Wonderful. There is a sense of humor…
Well, so far no one has mentioned either of two potential candidates for AG that I have thought of, so I’m just going to throw them out there for the heck of it: Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift and Elizabeth de la Vega. For that matter, John Kerry, who once was a prosecutor before he went into the Senate.
b
Dugg!
do the same, please?
Thank you!
So this means Mukasey will be AG into the Obama administration.
How in the world is this a good thing?
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-forking-ha
heh
How about Comey or RFK, Jr.?
Mr. Kerry railroaded an Army sgt named Bill Tyree when Billy went to the Army brass about certain covert ops that were being directed at US lawmakers within the borders of the US by the DIA, a certain Operation Watchtower, directed out of the Reagan/Bush White House.
Kerry is and always will be Skull and Bones and unless he’s willing to repudiate that treasonous group and divulge its secrets he deserves no office having to do with law enforcement.
Link, please.
George,
I ain’t ever gonna be no rubber stamp. Obama is entitled to my honest opinion, not my two faced lies.
I respect him enough to give him the truth as I see it.