Why is Rove so concerned about Holder being the Attorney General?

[Thrill]

Republican opposition towards the nomination of Eric Holder as Attorney General is being driven, it seems, by Karl Rove himself.

Ceci Connolly, national staff writer for the Washington Post, said as much on Sunday, when she passed on a bit of hill gossip in the waning moments of "The Chris Matthews Show."

"Word on the street is that Karl Rove is going to be helping lead the fight against Eric Holder when his nomination for Attorney General heads up to the Senate," she said.

Two days earlier, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy accused Rove of the same behind-the-scenes shenanigans when his office released a lengthy statement decrying the hypocrisy of the GOP's Holder criticisms.

"In my statement to the Senate on November 20, I commended Senators Hatch, Sessions, Coburn, and Grassley for their nonpartisanship when they praised his selection.... But of course since then, Karl Rove has appeared on the Today Show and signaled that Republicans ought to go after Mr. Holder. Right-wing talk radio took up the drum beat."

The airing of concerns about Holder by Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee has been unexpectedly uniform and vocal. Their charge is as much about process as politics. More time is needed to review Holder's record, they claim -- in particular, the controversial pardons he oversaw towards the end of the Clinton administration.

And, proving Leahy's point, Rove previewed all of these criticisms. On December 1, he told the "Today Show" that Holder "was deeply involved as the Deputy Attorney General in the controversial pardon" of fugitive financier Marc Rich.

"I think it's going to be clearly examined," said Rove, "if for no other reason than people want to lay down markers that that kind of behavior is inappropriate. ... But again, there will be some attention paid to this."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/14/rove-will-help-lead-gop-f_n_150869.html

[hobbit709]

1. He's worried that he may have "spend more time with his family"

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Breaking News--Al Capone to lead fight

against hiring of Elliott Ness.

[SoFlaJet]

3. real smart move there KKKarl

go ahead, piss off the new Attorney General and see how your claims of executive privilege go over when you're being sent to prison this time

[Pirate Smile]

4. 'Holder said the Bush administration had taken many steps that "were both excessive and unlawful"..'

The future AG thinks the Bush Administration committed "unlawful" acts. Hmmmm. That should be causing Rove and the rest of BushCo to be worried.

Holder on Bush, executive power

Email|Link|Comments (10) Posted by Jason Tuohey November 18, 2008 07:50 PM

Judging by his past statements, Eric Holder Jr., reportedly Barack Obama's top pick for attorney general, may aim to roll back several of the Bush administration's most controversial legal moves if he is selected for the post.

In a June speech to the American Constitution Society, Holder said the Bush administration had taken many steps that "were both excessive and unlawful" in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

"I never thought I would see the day when a Justice Department would claim that only the most extreme infliction of pain and physical abuse constitutes torture and that acts that are merely cruel, inhuman and degrading are consistent with United States law and policy, that the Supreme Court would have to order the president of the United States to treat detainees in accordance with the Geneva Convention, never thought that I would see that a president would act in direct defiance of federal law by authorizing warrantless NSA surveillance of American citizens. This disrespect for the rule of law is not only wrong, it is destructive in our struggle against terrorism," Holder said in the speech.

Holder also advocated closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, transferring the remaining prisoners to the US and adopting an "expedited and procedurally fair" review process.

"It is our task over the next several years to reverse the disastrous course that we have been on over the past few years," Holder said in his conclusion.

Watch Holder's speech.

Jonathan Mahler pointed out in the New York Times magazine last Sunday that although executive power greatly increased under President Bush (in large part because of the war on terror) the subject went mostly unnoticed in the presidential race.

The Boston Globe in 2007 gave the presidential candidates a 12-question survey on presidential authority. Read Obama's answers here, Vice President-elect Joe Biden's answers here, John McCain's answers here, and possible secretary of state Hillary Clinton's answers here.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/11/holder_on_bush.html