Daniel Klaidman has penned a must-read article in The Daily Beast entitled, "Holder's Regrets and Repairs," which focuses upon Holder's growing discomfort with his role in the case of James Rosen from Fox News.
In that case, Rosen was named in a Justice Department subpoena as a "co-conspirator" for newsgathering activities that related to the leak of highly classified information on North Korea. With Holder signing off on the subpoena, Rosen was placed under surveillance, and had his personal emails and phone records examined.
In essence, the subpoena turned what has always been the work of an investigative journalist into a criminal activity – a designation Holder now seems to regret and wants to correct.
While Klaidman's entire article is revealing, a most troubling moment came when a close friend, who chose to remain anonymous, was quoted as saying of the Attorney General:
"Look, Eric [Holder] sees himself fundamentally as a progressive, not some Torquemada out to silence the press."
And it was this part of the article that left me shaking my head. For unless my progressive values are not in tune with contemporary progressive politics, Eric Holder – in his professional capacity as Attorney General – is not a model progressive.
This administration, under Holder's direction at the DOJ, has engaged in a veritable war against whistleblowers – against vulnerable citizens who in many cases have risked much personally and professionally to report the misdeeds of others.
Indeed, the Justice Department has indicted more people under the Espionage Act (6) than all past administrations combined.
Of course, knowledge of this isn't new. But what is? The notion that aggressively targeting the press and whistleblowers is "progressive."
Is the case of John Kiriakou an expression of progressive values? For those who don't remember, Kiriakou was charged by the DOJ for leaking information on the CIA's torture program, and is currently serving 30 months in prison.
Kiriakou is the sole CIA officer to face jail time for any action involving the federal government's torture program. Ironically, Kiriakou, the whistleblower on the program, will go to prison, while the agents who implemented it will not.
The DOJ's war against the press and whistleblowers is not progressive.
Nor has been its legal justifications for America's drone program and extra-judicial killings of American citizens.
Nor has its reticence to investigate and charge criminal bankers who caused our country's financial collapse while simultaneously going after journalists who try to cover that collapse.
Now, on many social issues – including gay marriage – the Justice Department has expressed what some may consider progressive positions.
However, when it comes to matters of financial or national 'security' Holder's DOJ has been the antithesis of progressive.
This is perhaps the central political and ideological failing of the Obama administration: a hawkish DOJ far removed from progressivism in too many arenas.
Holder should have been better. And time will tell if he is returning to his progressive roots to right some of the wrongs his DOJ have committed.