President Obama’s justice department has from almost the first day spent its time criticizing the Bush administration and the behavior of its predecessors. Attorney General Holder declared that the civil rights division of the Justice Department was “once again open for business.” Holder also stated that his tenure would “restore the credibility of this department” in the same January 2009 speech.
Yet two years later, and the picture is a bit different. Aside from a cursory, soon-closed investigation into Bush’s alleged wrongdoing with suspected and known terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, the DOJ has been largely idle. Hans Von Spakovsky explains here at the Washington Examiner:
To put this in context, the Bush administration – which Holder and his Civil Rights Division chief, Tom Perez, miss no opportunity to criticize – averaged two Section 2 cases every year, brought more cases under the language minority provisions than in all other years combined since 1965, and filed 10 cases under the National Voter Registration Act. All of this is easily verifiable at the division’s own website.
Meanwhile the attorneys and workers at the DOJ aren’t finding much work to do. They were ordered off the blatant Black Panther voter intimidation case, they have declared they will not enforce federal law to ensure the integrity of state voter rolls, will not enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, failed to investigate or prosecute MOVE act violations in states who drug their feet and failed to by law supply absentee ballots on time to overseas troops, halted prosecution of the S.S. Cole bomber, and ignored evidence of bribes offered to candidates to step aside for ones preferred by the Democratic Party.
It isn’t that they are doing no work. Obama’s justice department has sued Arizona several times for trying to enforce federal immigration law (despite admitting he hadn’t read the law), Sued controversial Arizona sheriff Arpiao for civil rights violations, they’re investigating Louisiana to see if the state pushed voting registration to people getting new licenses and welfare, threatened a lawsuit against prisons which quarantine infectious AIDS patients, and shifted uncollected money in lawsuits to activist groups.
It isn’t like this was unexpected. Eric Holder’s record before being appointed Attorney General was well known. Judicial Watch lists Holder as their number 5 most corrupt politician:
Moreover, there is his record on terrorism issue.
Holder bypassed Justice Department procedures to push through Bill Clinton’s scandalous presidential pardons and commutations, including [pardons] for 16 members of FALN, a violent Puerto Rican terrorist group that orchestrated approximately 120 bombings in the United States, killing at least six people and permanently maiming dozens of others, including law enforcement officers.
From conflict of interest to hints of corruption to abuse of power, this guy makes me almost nostalgic for the relatively clean and professional days of Janet Reno. The Legacy Media dutifully reports briefly on each of these issues in short, often buried articles, then never looks back and never ties them together. When Attorney General John Ashcroft mentioned that he wished the nude breasts on the statues in the Justice Department building were covered, that was discussed for weeks by pundits and news programs, but these events barely get noticed.
And that’s simply unjust.
