I hated it when Attorney General Holder was held in contempt by a contemptuous congressional majority.
I do not like that Mr Holder must now resign. He is personable, principled and diligent unlike Gonzalez or Ashcroft. He has restored the morale and the reputation of the Justice department. That is, it seemed Justice was getting its "rep" back, before the Associated Press was placed under subpoena.
But resign Mr Holder must.
The Justice department of the United States government does not spy on the press. When all the legalese is broken through that is what was and is going on here. It needs to stop NOW with Mr Holder's departure.
The national security of the United States is best served by whistle blowers talking to a free press. That's how real scandals are uncovered and the real national security of this nation preserved. Did we not learn this 40 years ago in Watergate from Woodward, Bernstein & Deep Throat? Did we not learn it with the revelations of FBI "black bag job" burglaries and the Cointelpro infiltration of citizen groups who's only subversion was to attempt to exercise first amendment rights?
The Obama administration's national security "leak" investigations have a point. Their point is not to find anybody breaking the law with the intent of harming the United States or her citizens. Their point is to scare everybody who knows of governmental law breaking and malfeasance into absolute silence.
So Mr Holder you, regretfully, must go. And President Obama must you not come to understand that men such as Thomas Drake and William Binney among others are patriots?