Thread: REDSTATE: Clearest Sign Yet the GOP Will Take the Senate: Eric Holder to Resign

RS

EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Clearest Sign Yet the GOP Will Take the Senate: Eric Holder to Resign

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | September 25th, 2014 at 11:03 AM | 112

Eric Holder is going to resign his position as Attorney General
News is just coming across the wire. Holder has been Obama’s friend and companion for six years. He has relentlessly screwed up most everything he has touched. He has overseen a Department of Justice that has been complicit in killing American border patrol agents and covering up abusive government. In the vernacular of the kids these days, Eric Holder has loyally served as Barack Obama’s xxxxblocker.
And now he is resigning.
The only reason Eric Holder would do this now, before the mid-term elections, is if he was pretty sure he’d have to deal with a Republican Senate next year. A nomination and confirmation fight is just another area to be politicized before the 2014 mid-terms when the nation has turned against Barack Obama on a host of issues and Republicans are revving up attacks on both the IRS and Benghazi. It means a potential loss of control on another front when the Democrats are already on defense across the country. That instability does not happen unless the people in positions to control this decision see headwinds against them.
Eric Holder resigning is another sign the Democrats are worried about having to deal with a Republican Senate majority in January.

http://www.redstate.com/2014/09/25/c...der-to-resign/

http://www.alipac.us/f9/democrat-par...roblem-311418/

Stand With Phil Robertson

Two Probable Reasons Eric Holder is Out
http://www.libertynews.com/2014/09/t...holder-is-out/




Two Probable Reasons Eric Holder is Out | LibertyNEWS.com
There are a plethora of contributing factors that could play a role in Eric Holder's sudden and unexpected resignation. Two stand out above all others...
libertynews.com



Two Probable Reasons Eric Holder is Out

By Eric Odom
13 1:45 pm September 25, 2014

There are a plethora of contributing factors that could play a role in Eric Holder’s sudden and unexpected resignation. Two stand out above all others, though, and they both revolve around the elections in November.
As we all know the U.S. Senate is very much in play this year. Odds are not huge for Republicans, but odds are certainly there that Republicans take over the Senate. That said, Democrats still have a fighting chance of holding on.
With this in mind, the White House has to cover two bases. First, they’re obviously going to want to avoid a scenario that might help tilt the favor to Republicans in a big way. Second, the White House knows it won’t be able to get a radical, Obama favored nomination through a GOP controlled Senate.
On the first point, Eric Holder likely has serious problems coming down the pipe next month. Take a look at this.

Mr. Holder, is expected to announce his resignation later Thursday, and Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said the timing is not accidental: A federal judge earlier this week ruled that the Justice Department will have to begin submitting documents next month related to the botched Fast and Furious gun operation in a case brought by Judicial Watch.

The treasure chest of documents coming are very likely to present a damning case against Eric Holder and his handling of the DOJ with the Fast & Furious scandal. And if Holder is still the Attorney General when the damning documents hit, there is zero doubt Republicans would use it in campaign ads going into the final weeks of the campaign. Democrats would have the impossible task of distancing themselves from a poisonous DOJ boss in a time where they don’t want to be forced to defend the White House.
Granted, the GOP will likely still use the Fast & Furious scandal when the documents come (as they should), but half the sting will vanish with Holder out.
On the second point, the timing here suggests the White House anticipates a strong chance Democrats will lose the Senate. This is why Obama will likely try to push through a nomination by the end of the year, knowing full well the best chance of getting someone through will exist under Harry Reid’s rule.
1) Provide some political cover for Democrats when the Fast & Furious scandal bubbles up again
2) Get a nominee through the Senate before Republicans possibly take control
That would be my guess anyway

http://www.libertynews.com/2014/09/t...holder-is-out/

Court denies DOJ request to keep Fast and Furious list hidden…Two days later, Holder heads for the door

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Ben Bullard



Just two days before NPR reported that Attorney General Eric Holder will resign from his job, a U.S. District Judge denied a request by Holder’s Department of Justice to keep secret a listing of documents sought by plaintiffs in a lawsuit over the Operation Fast and Furious (OFF) scandal.
Judicial Watch, which is suing to obtain OFF-related documents the DOJ has refused to release in spite of a 2012 Freedom of Information Act request for the information, touted the ruling on its website, quoting U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, who appeared unconvinced by the DOJ’s argument that it needed more time to produce the OFF list:

Judicial Watch announced today that on September 23, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that by October 22, the Department of Justice (DOJ) must submit a “Vaughn index” listing Fast and Furious materials Judicial Watch sought in its June 2012 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and subsequent September 2012 FOIA lawsuit (Judicial Watch v. Department of Justice (No. 1:12-cv-01510)). A Vaughn index must: (1) identify each document withheld; (2) state the statutory exemption claimed; and (3) explain how disclosure would damage the interests protected by the claimed exemption.

Bates has given the DOJ until October 22 to cough up the list. Here are his reasons for ending the DOJ stonewall:

The Department first points to Judge [Amy Berman] Jackson’s November 3 deadline in House Committee [lawsuit for DOJ Fast and Furious documents] … But this misreads Judge Jackson’s opinion. As that court reasoned, ‘[s]ince the deadline in Judicial Watch was set first, it makes sense for defendant to complete that effort and then turn his attention to the list that is due in this case’ … This rationale counsels against dramatically shifting the goalposts in this case.
The government argues next that the sheer volume of documents involved in this case requires additional time to produce a Vaughn index, and it relies on the declaration testimony of Allison Stanton, a Director of E-Discovery at the Department of Justice, to substantiate this claim … She produced her declaration as part of the House Committee case, and her testimony describes the Department’s difficulties in responding to the order in that case … Nowhere does Stanton mention the present FOIA litigation or this case’s (much less onerous) Vaughn index requirement.
Finally, the government argues that it must devote significant numbers of attorneys to this matter if it hopes to comply with the current Vaughn index deadline … But the Department has known about its Vaughn index obligations since July 18, 2014 … At best, it means the Department has been slow to react to this Court’s previous Order. At worst, it means the Department has ignored that Order until now.

In light of Tuesday’s ruling, pundits have begun questioning the timing of Holder’s announced departure.
“The timing is interesting,” wrote Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds. “Does Obama think he can get a successor confirmed in the lame-duck session? Is he confident that Dems will still control the Senate next year? Or are the reasons for Holder’s departure sufficiently strong that those considerations don’t matter?”
One piece of speculation from the bully pulpit of the political right seems to indicate the latter: Rush Limbaugh thinks Obama may be preening Holder for a Supreme Court nomination.
Can you nominate someone who’s still in contempt of Congress? If so, that would make for some interesting confirmation hearings.

This entry was posted in Bell Ringer and tagged Eric Holder, Fast & Furious. Bookmark the permalink.

http://personalliberty.com/court-den...er-heads-door/

Sharpton says he’ll pick next AG

If you were excited that race-card Eric Holder is on his way out of the Attorney General’s office, this may ruin your day: The Rev. Al Sharpton says his civil rights organization, the National Action Network, is trying to help the White House pick Holder’s successor. More…

Eric Holder’s resignation and the midterm elections

By: John Hayward | September 25th, 2014 at 03:50 PM | 16

I think the conventional wisdom about the political fallout from Attorney General Eric Holder’s resignation has it wrong. This isn’t necessarily going to be a problem for Democrats. It’s a roll of the dice, a Hail Mary pass, but with a little luck, it could be a significant asset to them in the midterm elections. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I see that as a safe bet.
The argument that Holder’s resignation is a headache for endangered Democrats presumes that (1) the voters will take his departure as a sign of chaos in the already unpopular Obama Administration, and (2) congressional Democrats will now be flung into a tough confirmation battle. It would happen after the midterm election, but Republicans can happily add “vote for me unless you want to get stuck with another Eric Holder” to their campaign platforms.

The first point may be true – certainly Holder and the Administration will strive to make this look like an amicable parting of the ways, just one of those things, everything’s under control… but when one of the longest-serving members of an Administration departs right before a major election, eyebrows are certain to be raised. It’s tough to make that look good. Having said that, it’s a minor bruise for an Administration that already looks like Ivan Drago from “Rocky IV” worked it over and left it hanging on the ropes. When you’re a President with approval ratings plummeting under 40 percent, and you just launched a shooting war, there’s only so much damage the Attorney General can do by taking a powder. In and of itself, it’s not going to rank high on anyone’s list of reasons for voting against the Democrats in November.
The second point is highly debatable. Much depends on who gets picked to replace Holder, assuming the choice is announced before the election. There are people Obama could pick that wouldn’t draw a lot of overt criticism from Republicans, even if they ground their teeth in private. For that matter, Eric Holder himself was nominated with bipartisan acclaim, back in the day.
But let’s look at the immediate political response to Holder’s resignation. If some of his stonewalls are starting to crumble – and it looks like they might be – Holder’s departure takes a problematic situation off the table for Democrats. From this point forward, all investigations of Holder’s scandals will be portrayed as bitter persecution waged by zealots who won’t let the poor man get on with his life.
More importantly, look at the reaction from both sides of the aisle. Republicans are waving goodbye without using all of their fingers. They have very good reasons for being unhappy with Holder’s conduct, but they still sound harsh. For example, here’s Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) of the House Oversight Committee, who has more reason to be exasperated with Holder than just about anyone else in Washington:

Eric Holder is the most divisive U.S. Attorney General in modern history and, in a vote supported by 17 Democratic House Members, has the dubious historic distinction of being the first Attorney General held in criminal contempt by the U.S. House of Representatives. Time and again, Eric Holder administered justice as the political activist he describes himself as instead of an unbiased law enforcement official.
By needlessly injecting politics into law enforcement, Attorney General Holder’s legacy has eroded more confidence in our legal system than any Attorney General before him. Through strong arming reporters, practically ignoring high level wrongdoing, blocking his own agency Inspector General’s access to information, and overseeing a Department that attempted to stonewall Congressional oversight with denials of what is now established fact, Attorney General Holder abused his office and failed to uphold the values of our Constitution. While President Obama and the Senate should work expeditiously to find a replacement, time and care must be taken to ensure that our next Attorney General recognizes and does not repeat Mr. Holder’s mistakes

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), who also sits on House Oversight:

It’s a sad day when America rejoices about the news that the Attorney General of the United States is set to resign. His place in history will be marked by shameful violations of the rule of law and despicable circumvention of the Constitution. The integrity of our government, our Republic, fundamentally relies on the principle that no person, not even the president or the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, is above our laws.
Over the past 6 years this Department of Justice has been defined by its failures and complete disregard for accountability. From the death of Brian Terry in the Fast and Furious gun running operation, to spying on journalist James Rosen, to tapping the phone records of the Associated Press, and most recently the unconstitutional Bergdahl prisoner exchange as well as the IRS scandal, there is no question that Eric Holder leaves behind a legacy of lawlessness, incompetence and hyper partisanship.
I have been relentless in my pursuit to hold Eric Holder accountable for his actions and will not rest until the door officially hits him on his way out. The American people and U.S. Senate must ensure his replacement is a strict constitutionalist and not a partisan hack. Moving forward, our challenge begins now with rebuilding the trust of the American people and a return to fully upholding the laws of our country.

Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) of House Oversight:

Today’s announcement is a welcome yet long overdue relief for every American who believes in the integrity of our nation’s laws. From obstructing the truth behind the Fast and Furious operation to supporting President Obama’s circumvention of Congress to change laws, and so much more in between, Mr. Holder has repeatedly demonstrated his failure to properly do his job. Time and again, his crass neglect for transparency and enforcement of law amounted to a dereliction of duty. Looking ahead, I sincerely hope that Mr. Holder’s successor will bring fresh air and renewed discipline to the Justice Department and a firm respect for the Constitution as expected of the highest lawyer in our land. The American people deserve nothing less.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) of the House Judiciary Committee:

For many years now, I have been calling for Attorney General Holder’s resignation. Not only has he lied before Members of Congress and, ultimately, been held in contempt, he has obfuscated the truth and been the most partisan, partial, prejudiced and self-pitying Attorney General in my lifetime, including John Mitchell who went to jail for his crime.
As a former judge who has questioned Holder numerous times before the House Judiciary Committee, it is frustrating to seek the truth and receive dishonesty and arrogance from the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government.
He has prosecuted more people for leaking, which sometimes is an effort at whistle blowing, than all other Attorneys General added together. He has not only failed to investigate crimes and potential crimes occurring in this administration, he has been the Cover-Upper-in-Chief and will be sorely missed by those in the administration like Lois Lerner who want to disobey the law and flaunt it.
It is my sincere hope that the Obama Administration will appoint an Attorney General who is reputable and truly desiring to uphold law and order for all Americans– not just cater to this administration’s whims and ideology.

Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) had a different exit for the Attorney General in mind: “It’s past time for Attorney General Eric Holder to leave the Justice Department. While I had hoped it would be through the articles of impeachment that I introduced, I’m pleased that he will no longer be the top law enforcement official. I hope his replacement will be someone who holds the laws of this land to a higher standard. Holder’s blatant refusal to cooperate with or investigate Operation ‘Fast and Furious,’ his failure to enforce current laws or investigate the IRS scandal, possibly committing perjury in denying a role in a DOJ operation to confiscate emails from a reporter and his family, and the crisis on our southern border are all actions that clearly fall under ‘high crimes and misdemeanors..’”
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) also supported impeachment for Holder, specifically over his failure to investigate the IRS scandal properly: “It is good news that Eric Holder has announced his resignation. Sadly, he has proven to be the most partisan attorney general in our history, repeatedly defying and refusing to enforce the law. It did not have to be this way, but Holder’s leadership has grievously undermined the Department of Justice’s long bipartisan tradition of independence and fidelity to law.”
Senator David Vitter (R-LA) hit Holder for his assault on Louisiana school choice programs: “I can’t think of any AG in history who has attacked Louisiana more than Holder. He’s tried to defund a Louisiana youth program because students prayed, sued to block voucher scholarships going to poor kids in failing schools, and threatened the release of Louisiana voters’ personal information. I’m proud to have voted against his Senate confirmation.”
You get the idea. Meanwhile, Democrats are hailing Holder as an epic hero of the civil-rights movement, who might just have single-handedly kept black Americans from being stripped of their voting rights. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) just happens to have been attending a meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus when the news was announced, drawing “gasps from many in the audience and a panel including several prominent African-American politicians,” according to the UK Guardian. (Bear in mind that Holder discussed his resignation plans with President Obama over the Labor Day weekend, so Pelosi and every other Democrat leader knew this was coming.)

Just beforehand, the panel had been praising Holder for his instrumental role in pushing the administration on sentencing reform and other key issues. “I do associate myself with the comments … about the excellence our of great attorney general Eric Holder,” Pelosi said.
She went on: “I do, then, want to say that the word is that the attorney general will resign today. He has served our country very well, but the message is that the attorney general will be submitting his resignation to the president.”

The Guardian also had some comments from the White House:

“Holder’s accomplishments have established a historic legacy of civil rights enforcement and restoring fairness to the criminal justice system,” said a White House official.
“Holder revitalized the Department’s praised civil rights division, protected the rights of the LGBT community, successfully prosecuted terrorists and fought tirelessly for voting rights, to name a few. He will remain at the Department of Justice until his post is filled.”

Business Insider has Al Sharpton claiming to be intimately involved in the process of selecting Holder’s replacement. Definition of a banana republic: a tax cheat helping to pick out the next Attorney General.

The Rev. Al Sharpton said his civil rights organization, the National Action Network, is “engaged in immediate conversations” with the White House as they work to name a successor to Attorney General Eric Holder, who is set to announce his resignation Thursday afternoon.
“We are engaged in immediate conversations with the White House on deliberations over a successor whom we hope will continue in the general direction of Attorney General Holder,” Sharpton said in a statement.
Sharpton praised Holder, the first African-American attorney general, as the “best” one in history when it comes to civil rights.
“The resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder is met with both pride and disappointment by the Civil Rights community,” he said. “We are proud that he has been the best Attorney General on Civil Rights in U.S. history and disappointed because he leaves at a critical time when we need his continued diligence most.”

So you’re going to have Republicans reminding Americans about scandals the media scarcely bothered to cover, while Democrats set up the mother of all race-baiting bear traps. The Republicans’ criticisms, accurate as they may be, aren’t likely to interest anyone who isn’t already voting for them. Democrats, on the other hand, will use criticism of Holder to move their dispirited base voters to the polls. It might be one of the few national stories that can be made to seem exciting to Democrats.
It’s a gamble for Democrats, with the danger that voters who are already disgusted with the aura of incompetence surrounding this government will be irritated by encomiums to the Administration official who pretty much pioneered the Incompetence Defense – that remarkable tactic, later used by many other officials and the President himself, in which members of Team Obama say they’re not very good at their jobs, don’t read their emails, don’t know what anyone underneath them is doing, and therefore nothing is their fault. The Washington Free Beacon has a fun montage of all the times Holder claimed to be utterly clueless about important Justice Department matters:



But measure that against the high-octane racial appeals Democrats will build around Holder, and the divisive campaigning he might be able to personally slip in, now that he’s got some free time on his hands, and the odds are his departure will be a political bonus for them.

http://www.redstate.com/2014/09/25/e...erm-elections/

(Can't you just hear John Boner regurgitating Holder's vow to legally 'represent' illegal aliens?)

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HOLDER: AMERICA HAS MORAL OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE LEGAL REPRESENTATION TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Holder at Center of Obama's Planned Executive Amnesty

He is one of the chief architects of President Barack Obama’s planned executive amnesty.

Holder has also been leading efforts to give taxpayer-funded legal representation to illegal aliens. The “justice AmeriCorps” program he launched this summer, Breitbart News’ Tony Lee wrote at the time, "will spend $2 million dollars of taxpayer funds to provide illegal immigrant children with legal representation."

Breitbart
by Matthew Boyle
25 Sep 2014

VIDEOS AT SOURCE LINK

Soon-to-be-former Attorney General Eric Holder, who is resigning his position atop the Department of Justice (DOJ) after years of controversy, will leave behind a role for which many don’t give him credit: He is one of the chief architects of President Barack Obama’s planned executive amnesty.

In a June White House speech, Obama said he had directed Holder and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Jeh Johnson to review immigration laws to find a way to grant work authorization to as many as eight million illegal aliens in America right now.

While DHS oversees the office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)—the agency that would hand out work permits to illegal aliens if the president follows through with his threats—the DOJ oversees the immigration courts that are crucial to the process.

Those immigration courts that Holder oversees are facing record backlogs, a procedural burden that allows illegal aliens in many cases to stay in the U.S. by exploiting the weaknesses of the governmental bureaucracy. In 2012, the Inspector General of the Department of Justice found that the Holder DOJ was cooking the books on immigration court statistics.

The Inspector General wrote in the report's summary:

The OIG found that immigration court performance reports are incomplete and overstate the actual accomplishments of these courts. These flaws in EOIR’s performance reporting preclude the Department from accurately assessing the courts’ progress in processing immigration cases or identifying needed improvements. For example, administrative events such as changes of venue and transfers are reported as completions even though the immigration courts have made no decisions on whether to remove aliens from the United States. As a result, a case may be “completed” multiple times. In our sample of 1,785 closed cases, 484 administrative events were counted as completions by EOIR. Reporting these administrative actions as completions overstates the accomplishments of the immigration courts.

Those actions by Holder’s DOJ’s immigration courts, the Los Angeles Times’ Hector Becerra wrote in July, have exacerbated the border crisis that has dominated American news in recent months, since Breitbart Texas published photos of illegal alien children in holding facilities.

“The average case takes 578 days to make its way through the immigration courts, with 366,758 cases currently pending, according to federal court records compiled by Syracuse University,” Becerra wrote in a piece entitled “immigration court backlog adds to border crisis.”

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) recently wrote to Holder—a letter that Sens. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and John McCain (R-AZ) followed with one of their own—questioning why Holder and DOJ were stopping prosecution of illegal aliens pursuant to Operation Streamline on the Yuma Sector of Arizona’s border with Mexico. Gosar said in a statement about his letter:

The Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney have now indicated they will no longer prosecute illegal immigrants under Title 8, United States Code, § 1325. This dereliction will completely undermine the United States’ ‘zero tolerance’ policy established through Operation Streamline and flies in the face of years of work conducted by federal, state and local law enforcement to secure our communities and our borders.

The Associated Press recently reported that Holder’s DOJ has not answered its requests, or those lawmakers’ requests, on the matter.

"Public affairs officials from the Department of Homeland Security, Justice Department and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection have all refused to answer questions about whether the program has been scaled back,” the AP wrote.

The AP story led the Drudge Report when it came out just last week. Gosar said in his statement about the reports that Holder stopped enforcing immigration law on the Yuma Sector:

It seems like a never-ending cycle these days. The Administration acts to circumvent the law, Congress makes legitimate Congressional inquiries, and… silence. Nothing. Zilch. I am sick and tired of this Administration—which promised to be the most transparent in history—constantly seeking to tilt the scales on our age-old systems of checks and balances. I will not stand for it, and I will continue to seek the answers the people deserve.

Holder has also been leading efforts to give taxpayer-funded legal representation to illegal aliens. The “justice AmeriCorps” program he launched this summer, Breitbart News’ Tony Lee wrote at the time, "will spend $2 million dollars of taxpayer funds to provide illegal immigrant children with legal representation."

Holder called the program “a historic step to strengthen our justice system and protect the rights of the most vulnerable members of society.”

“How we treat those in need, particularly young people who must appear in immigration proceedings -- many of whom are fleeing violence, persecution, abuse or trafficking -- goes to the core of who we are as a nation,” Holder said.

Holder infamously, too, said that granting amnesty to illegal aliens is a “civil right.” He said in April 2013, as the Senate began consideration of the “Gang of Eight” bill:Creating a pathway to earned citizenship for the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in this country is essential. The way we treat our friends and neighbors who are undocumented – by creating a mechanism for them to earn citizenship and move out of the shadows – transcends the issue of immigration status. This is a matter of civil and human rights. It is about who we are as a nation. And it goes to the core of our treasured American principle of equal opportunity.

source: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...cutive-Amnesty