Perhaps, I knew this was true the whole time (I may, at one time or another, have questioned Eric Holder's reading comprehension) but to confirm it so clearly and explicitly is just too much. Could Eric Holder look more pathetic and out of his depth than he's portrayed in that article?
After spending the first half explainign Holder's views and his history, his devotion to lofty legal principles and blah blah blah, the article quotes Holder defending his decision not to pursue Bush for his crimes:
"You only want to look back at a previous administration if you feel you really have to," Holder said. "Because it has a potential chilling effect. If people who work in this administration today think that four years from now, or eight years from now, the decisions they make are going to be examined by a successor administration, you don't want that to happen. So that's a political consideration."
This "rationale" is such odious bullshit it doesn't even make any sense on its face. It is an argument explicilty and unapologetically antithetical to the rule of law. It's exactly like saying that prosecuting scumbags who prey on children over the internet will have a "chilling effect" on normal people who like to play checkers on Facebook against some 15 year old kid. "Chilling effect?" On fucking what? General behavior? Fucking hell, Eric, you're a lawyer, there are things all around that have a "chilling effect" on general behavior, they're called fucking LAWS. (Case in point, right now those nagging little laws are chilling me from randomly throwing heavy objects out of my window while blindfolded - if only I knew no one would come along and examine my decisions!)
Someone with a "deep love" for this country, who is a lawyer who dedicated his career to working at the DOJ should probably, ya know, have enough faith in the American Judicial System to be at least partially confident that simply "examining" past decisions won't lead to prosecutions unless there's actual evidence of criminal behavior.
Fucking "Chilling Effect!?" That's a notion to be applied to things we value and cherish like free speech. Not to government officials who might one day choose to murder people locked in cages, not even if the Presidential himself makes that choice. But he's right: if people who work in this administration feel like one day someone will look back at their activities, they might just... try to conform their behavior to the law! Holy christ, that would be a terrible thing. Average fuck-ups like me and this guy can go to jail (or get sued) for all kinds of shit, and ignorance of the law is no excuse. But we should adopt an explicit policy that the powerful, all-law-knowledgeable officials can just own slaves, marinate cats and compliment a White House intern on her tits and face no consequences because otherwise there will be a "chilling effect?"
This line of bullshit is so crushingly pathetic when you consider this same man once said the American people were owed a "reckoning." So Eric here wanted a reckoning, but, looking back on previous administrations is now something we "don't want." What a colossal pussy.
And, if any doubt remained, there is this exchange:
"But before the inauguration," I said, "both you and the president said that habeas should apply to enemy combatants."
"I'm not sure I ever opined on that," Holder said.
"I could read you a quote."
Holder laughed uncomfortably.
"Here's the quote: 'Our government authorized the use of torture, approved secret electronic surveillance without due process of law, denied the writ of habeas corpus to hundreds of accused enemy combatants,' and a few other things."
Holder was silent. "But I was talking about Guantánamo," he said. "I'm pretty sure I was talking about Guantánamo."
I don't know how it got to this point, Eric, and I'm sure at each turn you thought you could give a little here or there but stick around to fight the good fight. Well, you got knocked the fuck out! You're a political hack and a blatant hypocrite. "Resign in protest" or something and we'll just forget this whole thing ever happened.
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