[35th J.P.’s Moment of Common Sense on Broad View, KBZZ 1270 AM and 96.1 FM in Reno.]

Eric Himpton Holder, Jr., is the current Attorney General of the United States of America and there are two amazing things about him: number one, it’s amazing that his parents thought the alliterative mess “Eric Himpton Holder” was worth passing down; and number two, it’s amazing that President Obama hasn’t fired him.

The Obama Administration has plenty of failures to impede his reelection—the president really doesn’t need an attorney general who is both crooked and incompetent.  The fact that Eric Holder still has a job says a lot about how disconnected Obama is from reality and also something about his leftwing bull-headedness.

Over the past month two big cases were argued in front of the Supreme Court by Holder’s Justice Department.  The first dealt with the constitutionality of Obamacare and the second, this week, dealt with the Arizona immigration law.  In both of these important cases, the Justice Department’s legal arguments were practically laughed out of the building.  Even the two leftwing justices appointed by Obama had trouble with the government’s reasoning, which is not a good sign for the reputation of the Justice Department.

Eric Holder’s entire career is made of laughable moments.  He first drew national attention as the guy who recommended that President Clinton pardon fugitive Marc Rich in 2001, which ended up being the stinkiest pardon of a whole slew of stinky last-minute pardons by Clinton.  Bill Clinton was practically running a garage sale for presidential pardons.  When Obama nominated Holder to be Attorney General in 2009, Republican senators asked about the Marc Rich pardon and the only excuse he could manage was that he was ignorant at the time.

They approved his nomination anyway.  Go figure.  Apparently ignorance is a job qualification now.

Once in office, Holder’s first decision was to vacate the case against the New Black Panther Party for standing in front of a Philadelphia polling place and threatening white voters with a club.  At first Holder tried to excuse his decision by saying the case was weak, whereupon people pointed out the case was already won... during the Bush administration.  Then he tried to claim the Black Panthers didn’t do anything serious enough to warrant punishment, whereupon people pointed out that “punishment” would be nothing more than injunctions preventing the Black Panthers from doing the same thing in the future... which is not exactly imprisonment on Devil’s Island.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that most Americans, regardless of race, are okay with telling people not to stand in front of polling places with clubs.

Then there was Holder’s brilliant idea to try Al Queda terrorists in civil courtrooms.  His first effort was the trial of Ahmed “Foopie” Ghailani, who confessed to murdering over 200 people but the confession was ruled unallowable in a civil trial like everybody tried to tell Holder it would be and Ghailani was acquitted on 284 of 285 charges, including all of the murder charges.  Oops.  Apparently Holder was ignorant again.

The worst thing that’s happened under Eric Holder is the Fast & Furious gun-running scandal, wherein federal law enforcement agencies under Department of Justice supervision sold guns to Mexican crime gangs in direct violation of the laws they’re supposed to enforce.  This resulted in the death of a Border Patrol agent by one of those illegally-sold guns and the spread of violence along the U.S./Mexican border.  Thousands of guns—even grenades—were sold to criminals with the specific aim of causing problems that would allow Obama and Holder to make a political argument for stricter gun control.  Remember when a Mexican cartel rolled grenades into a Guadalajara nightclub last year, killing 6 people and injuring 38?  There’s a good chance those grenades came from the U.S. government, thanks to Eric Holder.

Justice Department lawyers were eventually caught lying to congress about the Fast & Furious mess and Holder is already re-using his Marc Rich ignorance excuse to keep himself out of prison for perjury.  Congress is not impressed.  127 members of Congress have now asked for Eric Holder’s resignation, along with two sitting governors, and there are demands for a criminal investigation of the nation’s top law enforcement officer.  That’s kind of embarrassing.

It should be embarrassing enough to make Obama fire the guy but he hasn’t done it.  Maybe Holder knows too much.  Maybe Fast & Furious and the weak Supreme Court legal arguments are coming from the White House and maybe the White House doesn’t want Holder spilling those kind of beans during an election year.

But for the sake of the country, Mr. President, Eric Holder has to go.  To paraphrase Kenny Rogers, you need to know when to Holder, and know when to fold ’im.

That’s... today’s dose of common sense.

“He that studieth revenge keepeth his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.” —John Milton

“In human history, the desire for revenge and the desire for loot have often been closely associated.” —John McCarthy

From Reno, Nevada, USA        Tweet

April 30, 2012 - I agree with your post! Obama and holder are two peas in the pot; the recent case of Trayvon/Zimmermann is a reminder, how both of them allow the black panthers and usual race hustlers to flaunt the law, promising 'violence' if they can't get a sacrificial lamb like Zimmermann. Wait until summertime when election shifts into high gear; it won't be pretty. Since when is it ok to set 'bounty' for anyone dead or alive as we've recently seen? - Cali, Florida

April 29, 2012 - Holder isn't a law enforcement officer. He has no use or respect for the law. He's a political hack. Always has been. - Pete W., Reno