Though I don’t subscribe to the idea that public officials should be hounded out of office over policy differences, I do think there comes a time when a person becomes such a distraction that an Administration is probably better off asking for a resignation. That time is fast approaching for Attorney General Eric Holder. By all accounts, he is a decent man with establishment credentials. He may even be a good attorney. But he is not an effective Attorney General.
To date, Holder’s most consequential decision as AG was moving Guantanamo Bay detainees from a military court system to a New York federal criminal court. Though the decision was apparently fought by the White House, President Barack Obama let Holder make the call. After protests from everybody except the Justice Department, the decision is in the process of being reversed.
Now, it is revealed that he failed to provide the Senate with seven briefs he signed prior to his nomination as AG. Republicans claim these are material omissions that could have derailed his nomination. Probably not. But all of these are self-inflicted wounds that give the president’s opponents something to crow about. As of today, Holder is a third strike away from being the first Obama Cabinet member to be asked to call it quits.
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