Eric Holder Is Leaving Now, Because Obama Thinks The Senate Is Lost
It's busting out on to the wires today. Holder is resigning, effective as soon as his replacement can be confirmed.
He had to do this now, rather than wait until after the midterms, because Holder's tenure as Attorney General has been marked by a pattern of activist Leftism and constitutional/legal abuse such as has never been seen in American history, and if there is a Republican majority in the Senate next year they're not going to be able to confirm anyone like him. The current Labor Secretary, Thomas Perez, who used to be the head of the Civil Rights Division within DOJ, would be the first-round draft choice to replace Holder but Perez would never be confirmed by a Republican Senate majority.
But in a Senate Harry Reid controls, sure.
Erick Erickson has this absolutely right!
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.
Understand this, if you had an Attorney General who was interested in faithfully executing his oath of office rather than serving as the palace guard for the Obama administration, you would have special prosecutors investigating the IRS scandal, the NSA, the James Rosen surveillance case, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the GSA scandal and several others. The corruption within the administration has been covered up by Holder as he focuses his efforts on destroying school choice and stopping states from implementing highly-popular Voter ID laws is absolutely endemic, and it is unpunished because Holder keeps it that way.
This administration simply cannot afford not to have an Attorney General who will continue to hold the line as Holder has. And if it were to lose the Senate before replacing Holder, it would be forced to appoint someone either incapable or less-than-willing to serve as Obama's protector.
And Holder not sticking it out until after the midterms, as Erickson says, means Obama thinks he's lost the Senate. Holder goes, they're going to make a run at appointing Perez or somebody like him and getting them confirmed in the lame-duck session and they'll hope that's enough to keep the house of cards from collapsing.
by MacAoidh/Scott McKay (e-mail)
