While calls for U.S. Attorney General Eric “Stonewall” Holder’s resignation grow and the House GOP gears up for a contempt vote next week, it’s worth remembering how we got into this mess. In two words: feckless bipartisanship.

“I like Barack Obama and want to help him if I can.” That was Utah GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch in January 2009, just weeks before the Senate voted on President Obama’s attorney general nominee, Eric Holder. Right out of the gate, upon Obama’s election in November 2008, Hatch signaled that he would greenlight the administration’s top law enforcer.