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Taking the Sheen Off Obama
Can Republican senators upset Barack Obama's first 100 days by targeting the confirmation of attorney general nominee Eric Holder? They’re sure going to try.
While questions during Eric Holder’s confirmation hearings, which open on January 5, will inevitably probe his role in the pardoning of the billionaire fraudster Marc Rich in the final moments of the Clinton administration, it’s another issue that may be even more damaging: Holder’s involvement in the freeing of 16 members of a murderous Puerto Rican nationalist group in 1999 who were linked to bombs in Washington, New York, and Chicago.
The GOP senators aim to tarnish Obama’s sheen by focusing their fire on a single cabinet nominee. The most likely target is his pick for attorney general, according to an aide to a Republican senator on the judiciary committee.
The campaign against Holder could be "a kind of exhibit on Obama not getting it on terrorism," an aide to a Republican senator on the judiciary committee explained. "If you frame it properly, it's better than the Marc Rich stuff."
The senators will suggest that the Rich pardon shows Holder lacks the independence of mind needed to be a sound attorney general. But they will further allege that his role in freeing the Puerto Rican terrorists shows a fundamental failure to grasp the danger of terrorism
Already Senator Arlen Specter, the independent minded ranking Republican on the committee has ominously asked for a two week delay to the hearings, set for January 8. Specter noted that Holder's nominee questionnaire and FBI background check were not yet complete. "I am looking for a very constructive engagement to determine the qualifications of Mr. Holder," he said on the floor of the Senate.
While Holder’s role in the Rich pardon is embarrassing—he wrote a recommendation to Bill Clinton saying he was "neutral, leaning towards favorable" about a Rich pardon—his less well known advice to advocates of the Puerto Rican terrorists on how best to win a presidential pardon, will be presented as an unacceptable ambivalence towards terrorism at the heart of the new Obama administration.
The nationalist group known as FALN stands accused of planning more than 130 bombings that killed six people and wounded 70 between 1974 and 1983. They planted bombs in Washington DC, New York, and Chicago, targeting corporate headquarters, financial institutions, and military and government buildings, including New York's police headquarters.
Though the individuals pardoned by Clinton were imprisoned on conspiracy or firearms charges, and were not accused of directly causing any deaths, Attorney General Janet Reno warned that the group posed an "ongoing threat" to national security and that the release of its members would increase that threat. Three years before Holder issued his advice to Clinton, in 1996, the Justice Department recommended that clemency for the 16 FALN members be denied.
When Clinton pardoned the nationalists in 1999, his move was seen as an attempt to help Hillary Clinton win her New York senate bid by pandering to Hispanics.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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What's the Point?
Since the Repubnuts know they can't block either Holder or Richardson's appointment why would they bother to try and destroy these two men? Oh I get it, they want to make sure Black and Hispanic Americans can see the Goofy Old Party's (GOP) racial bias on display. Btw this is the same team who defended one of the worse "Top Cops" in history, the boot licking Alberto Gonzales. Apparently the GOP, the so-called Big Tent party, still doesn't get it. They want to play petty politics while Obama is to determined to create smart government. Whose advising these guys Bozo the clown? Or could it be David Duke?
The problem is, there is nothing they can really say. Nothing. Not after Bush, not after Palin, not after McCain. It's too late. Your nominees and elected President are a laughing stock. A parody of the GOPs most hypocritical values. The ones that now seem old and outdated. The ones 99% of the growing young population has allready moved past.
So you may nitpick. And you may try to beat down any nomination and any pick made by Obama. That's okay. Because at this point--it's mostly just pity. Because as Bush is in office--as long as Palin still balks and sputters over the word feminist (something the rest of us stopped doing a long time ago) you just sit tight.
Perhaps there will be new, better canidates one day. But in case you didn't notice we're sorta tired of all this negative crap. Kinda over it. We're ready to just be done with it.
But until Obama starts a war, ruins an economy, steals an election, makes the world smirk at our name, lets our country be attacked and sanctions torture, I'd say the GOP is pretty much up hypocrit creek.
Have fun paddeling your way out of that Sh!t.
The bloggers article would have been more complete had he mentioned that Holder's nomination was actually vetted with senior Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee. It was only after their response that they did not find Holder's involvement in the Rich pardon to be disqualifying. Did the blogger omit that information because to include it would have taken most of the punch out of his viewpoint? Either he is pimping a viewpoint which only he holds, or he is ignorant of the full background of the Holder nomination. Which condition would he claim -- dumb or dumber?
Well PunchPrincess!
Lets not hold anything back. Go ahead and say what you think.
Wow. I hope the Republicans succeed in blocking this nomination. Obama's campaign promise to instruct the DEA not to persecute marijuana users in states where medical marijuana has been approved went up in smoke with the nomination of Holder. I would have voted for McCain if I had known Obama's word was worthless.
Shrapnel, to what are you referring in your comment about marijuana users? I must have missed something.
Nominating Holder was Obama's first really stupid mistake.
Yes, Holder is his friend, and he wants a black cabinet member,
but the Rich pardon and the Puerto Rican terrorist pardon show that Holder was willing to support Clinton in pas ndering shamelessly to a wealthy donor and an ethnic group. The Democrats have the votes to approve him, but it will be at a
cost to Obama.
Thank you.
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