I was originally going to take the approach here to ask more directly – "what specifically is the disqualifying factor that gets conservative and republican whiners so bent out of shape", because it would put them on the defensive and more likely result in spewing of "Marc Rich!!! Elian Gonzalez!!! Bill Clinton!!! Blagojevich!!!!" with no specifics on what actions by Holder’s regarding any of the above (or other "issues") would disqualify him from being the next Attorney General.
But it is really much simpler than that. Of course, the argument was that Bush shouldn’t get questioned on his picks for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court (or his Cabinet, for that matter), but now under the "IOKIYAR" theory, Obama should have his picks for a non-lifetime appointment derailed because of.....well, I don’t really know what.
Looking at some of the crap peddled by Senate republicans about Alberto Gonzales we find statements saying that he disavowed torture, even though it was him and his underlings who spent countless hours trying to figure out how to torture prisoners. He was a crony of Bush, who got Bush out of jury duty so his drunk driving arrest wouldn’t be made public. He helped Bush in all of the clemency denials in Texas and Bush put him on the Texas Supreme Court. And he was just a bad liar on top of that. But Frist called him a "total professional with a high regard for the law". Arlen Specter overlooked everything else and was fascinated by his personal story.
And just like Mukasey who followed him (even though he was pretty much ok with the US torturing prisoners), or Alito and his views on strip searching pre-teen girls, or Roberts and his right wing leanings and writings, the entire argument came back to one statement by republicans:
He is qualified and elections have consequences.
Well, eat those words, whiny republican fuckers. Holder is most certainly qualified. He was even endorsed by James Comey, who happened to be the prosecutor in the Marc Rich case and was also the one who stood up for justice with respect to the warrantless wiretapping as well as appointed Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the Plame leak.
The ridiculousness that has become the latest hissy fit from republicans to find anything that could distract the public enough for the shiny object that everyone forgot about ten years ago.
But the bottom line is that Holder took down Rostenkowski, a powerful Democrat. He is not afraid to go after corruption – and maybe that is why the republicans are scared shitless about his impending confirmation. He is highly qualified, and his "ties" to Clinton have nothing to do with Obama – nor do his ties to Clinton even rise to the level that Gonzales and Bush had. And do Senate republicans really want to talk about pardons next January after Bush issues a slew of them himself?
This should be a non-starter. As I have said before, anyone that raises any questions or whines about Holder should answer one question and have one statement thrown back at them:
- Is he as qualified to hold the office as Gonzales and Ashcroft and Mukasey were?
- He doesn’t waffle on torture.
That is all. Everything else is a needless stupid bullshit distraction that frankly, this country can’t afford to have right now.