Obama Picks Holder and the Vultures Start Circling

Whodini once said that "the freaks come out at night." But in the case of President-elect Obama's cabinet picks, they'll probably be out closer to noon every day.

Case in point: on Tuesday news outlets reported that Washington lawyer and former deputy Attorney General in the Clinton administration Eric Holder would be Obama's choice for Attorney General when he takes office in January and the nation's first African-American to hold the spot.

COMMUNITY: Weighing In On Eric Holder >>>

Now, of course Holder should be held to proper scrutiny and vetting and the media should do its due diligence when looking this guy over. But it didn't take an entire day before conservatives (whom I thought were supposed to be regrouping after they got their gnads handed to them on election day) decided to blast the cybersphere with all sorts of distraction about Holder.

I can hardly wait until Matt Drudge goes on the attack. ...

During his time in the Clinton White House only two controversies attached themselves to Holder, the first when he was originally appointed had to do with his opposition to the death penalty. Despite his opposition, he pledged to uphold the law as it concerned the issue, which he did.

The second was during the closing days of Clinton's tenure when the president pardoned Marc Rich, a commodities trader and Democratic contributor who fled the United States while being prosecuted for tax evasion and illegal oil deals with Iran. Clinton pardoned him on his last day in office in 2001.

Holder came into the picture when Rich's lawyer, Jack Quinn phoned Holder trying to test the possibility of getting a pardon. Later, he arranged a call between the White House and Holder asking for his opinion of the matter, which was neutral but leaned toward support of Clinton granting the pardon -- although the decision ultimately lay with the president.

In later testimony, Holder said that he was neutral in the matter, but the then Republican-led House of Representatives which was reviewing dozens of Clinton pardons had an influence on Rich's pardon. But that was it, he was not reprimanded or punished by any law enforcement agency or governmental entity. He instead went into private practice.

Now, all this makes me wonder why conservatives couldn't give the same scrutiny to disgraced Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who was alleged to have perjured himself before a Congressional hearing and wound up resigning in 2007 over the mess he made in the Justice Department after seven U.S. attorneys were fired for no reason. This controversy was the beginning of several including his gross misinterpretation of the constitutional writ of habeas corpus and the National Security Administration's eavesdropping controversy.

Perhaps the standards by which someone can screw up the most airtight legal organization in the world should be what we measure any new Attorney General nominees. Or maybe it's the opposite: maybe conservatives can let the vetting and selection process go through and then allow him to perform before he gets chided.

Rest assured, this is only the beginning.

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