< Back to Front Page Text size – +

Holder gets committee blessing

Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor January 28, 2009 11:14 AM

The Senate Judiciary Committee just recommended the confirmation of Eric Holder as attorney general.

The 17-2 vote, sending his nomination to the full Senate, came despite misgivings about his role in controversial pardons while he worked in the Clinton administration's Justice Department and his reluctance to promise not to prosecute government officials for harsh interrogations.

Last week with among his first executive orders, President Obama ordered a stop to those interrogations, including waterboarding, that critics consider torture, and wiped out the legal guidance that allowed them during the Bush administration.

Senator John Cornyn of Texas was one of the two "no" votes.

“I’m very concerned about his complicity in the Mark Rich pardon, which FBI Director Louis Freeh called a corrupt act by then President Clinton, and then his complicity in the pardons of a group of Puerto Rican terrorists, the FALN," Cornyn said this morning on Fox News Radio.

"Then also I’m very concerned about his stated positions on how he will deal with those intelligence officials who followed the legal guidance of the office of legal counsel of the Department of Justice that said basically the interrogation techniques they were using were legal, and his statement now that some of that was torture, which leaves the unanswered question, will he prosecute them? I think it’s unfair to those intelligence officials, it will cause future intelligence officials to be risk averse which will make our country less safe.”

If the full Senate confirms Holder, he would become the nation's first African American top law enforcement official.

  • CommentComment
  • EmailEmail
» Back to Front Page
.

Didn't he also have some involvement with the Freddie/Fannie fiasco and meltdown? Is this payoff for Obama's past dealings with him? Is this why Holder said there will be no witch hunt in the financial sector, because it may dig up evidence best left uncovered, like corruption of members of Congress and their criminal colussion with the financial industries. This guy has no interest in working within the Constitution. At the very best he'll find ways, as he has before, to "work around it", a phrase we seem to be hearing more and more these last few months. With Holder and Emmanuel "working around it", I can see our Bill of rights circling the drain before the next 4 years are over.

Posted by David February 3, 09 12:26 PM
add your comment *(If you put a URL in your comment, it must be relevant )
Required
Required (will not be published)

This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.

About Political Intelligence

Reports from Boston Globe reporters and editors about the Obama administration, the Massachusetts congressional delegation, and other national political happenings.
see all Globe blogs

News from the Washington Bureau

In N.E. governors’ races, GOP sees a chance to build on gains

Invigorated by state house victories earlier this month in Virginia and New Jersey, Republicans are turning their attention to governorships in New England, where they believe the retirement of four incumbents and a competitive race in Massachusetts has created wide-open opportunities. (Globe Correspondent, 11/25/09)

Senators voice optimism on public option

WASHINGTON - Buoyed by their weekend victory on a vote beginning the health care debate, several Senate Democrats expressed optimism yesterday they could find a way to keep a government-run insurance plan in the sweeping bill. (Globe Staff, 11/23/09)

Health overhaul narrowly advances

The Senate narrowly overcame the first of two critical hurdles to passing sweeping health care legislation last night, mustering the minimum of 60 votes required to begin debate on the bill and opening a volatile floor fight likely to last weeks. (Globe Staff 11/22/09)

Latinos, blacks take harder hit amid recession

Latinos and African-Americans in Massachusetts and across the country are facing high unemployment rates that could spiral to levels not seen in decades as the jobless economic recovery drags on, analysts and urban community advocates say. (Globe Staff, 11/21/09)

Some lawmakers push back Catholic church on health care bill

Representative Louise Slaughter has a consistent record advocating abortion rights. So the New York Democrat was stunned recently to receive, for the first time, a letter from a Catholic diocese in western New York, demanding that she explain her vote this month against a health care amendment prohibiting insurance companies from paying for abortions. (Globe Staff, 11/21/09)

Support wanes for curbs on credit-card interest rates

Efforts in Congress to cap credit-card interest rates are faltering because of opposition from Democrats and a lack of specific support from the White House, despite growing consumer outrage over a rush by banks to impose rates as high as 30 percent. (Globe Staff, 11/19/09)

Obama domestic agenda largely a one-party effort

Despite early pleas for bipartisanship, President Obama is forging ahead with his domestic agenda with a largely single-party strategy, unable to corral more than a handful of Republicans on a wide range of major legislation before Congress. (Globe Staff, 11/17/09)

Beirut attack victims’ families face new hurdle

On Veterans Day, Christine Devlin stood in the cold in Westwood for the unveiling of a new memorial to local soldiers lost overseas, including her son Michael, one of the 241 servicemen killed in the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983. (Globe Staff, 11/14/09)

FHA runs low on cash, fueling bailout concerns

The Federal Housing Administration, which propped up the collapsing housing market last year, acknowledged yesterday that it has drained its cash reserves to dangerously low levels, heightening concerns that it might need a taxpayer bailout. (Globe Staff, 11/13/09)

Powerful health care groups offer optimism on overhaul

Two leading health care interest groups, representing insurers and big business, struck a more conciliatory, even optimistic tone on the health care overhaul yesterday, emphasizing their support of the overall goal of increasing coverage and containing costs even as they warned that the wrong bill could cause great harm. (Globe Staff, 11/13/09)
archives