With the departure of Eric Holder, President Obama has lost his most-trusted surrogate on sensitive issues of race and civil rights — and Republicans have lost their favorite piñata.
Holder, just one of three remaining members from Obama’s original Cabinet, took on an increasingly active role in an administration besieged by unexpected crises.
For Obama, Holder was not only a personal friend, but also a human shield for some of the most toxic political debates in Washington.
The nation’s top law-enforcement official was the public face of the White House in Ferguson, Mo., in the wake of combative protests there, spearheaded Obama’s efforts to scrap mandatory minimum prison sentences, and unabashedly used the Justice Department’s civil rights division unlike any attorney general in modern history.
Holder, the nation’s first black attorney general, was deployed by the president to confront topics that he could not. It was Holder who first condemned Florida’s stand-your-ground laws in the wake of the killing of Trayvon Martin, and the attorney general spoke forcefully on gay rights, even before the president completed his evolution on same-sex marriage.
Mainly because of the botched “Fast and Furious” gunwalking probe, conservatives detested Holder. In 2012, House Republicans held the attorney general in contempt of Congress for not providing more information on the investigation, essentially ensuring a toxic relationship between Holder and GOP lawmakers for the remainder of his tenure.
“He gets more crap than anybody,” a former senior administration official recently told the Washington Examiner, describing Holder’s role under Obama.
Holder took fire from progressives, too, especially following revelations about the Justice Department’s monitoring of journalists — an episode that overlapped with the outrage over National Security Agency surveillance techniques.
Many had speculated about the ouster of Holder, who initially frustrated the White House by going off the reservation one too many times. But such talks had quieted after Obama’s re-election.
In fact, some of Holder’s closest friends doubted he would leave the position at all.
With Holder leaving now, however, Obama can nominate a replacement before a potential Republican takeover of the Senate in November.
Holder will remain in the post until his successor is confirmed.
Regardless of the candidate, though, the confirmation battle will get contentious, particularly among Republicans who accused the Holder Justice Department of being more concerned with political activism than enforcing the law.
“Holder has converted the role of Justice from the leader of our national justice system to an arm of the president’s political operation,” said Richard Kelsey, assistant dean at the George Mason University School of Law. “Under Mr. Holder, the over-reach of presidential power and abuses of that power in end-running Congress have only grown — with his tacit or direct approval.”
With Obama nearing full-on legacy mode, his next attorney general will be asked to continue much of Holder’s work. It’s unlikely that Holder’s replacement will produce the same fireworks.
When a GOP congressman questioned Holder’s concern about being held in contempt, the attorney general bristled.
“You don’t want to go there, buddy!” Holder told Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas. “You don’t want to go there, OK?”
“You should not assume that is not a big deal to me,” Holder added. “I think it was inappropriate, I think it was unjust, but never think that it was not a big deal to me. Don’t ever think that.”
When Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., accused Holder of withholding information from Congress, the attorney general was indignant.
“No, that’s what you typically do,” Holder told Issa. “That is inappropriate and is too consistent with the way in which you conduct yourself as a member of Congress. It’s unacceptable, and it’s shameful.”
Such exchanges were part of the reason Holder gained Obama’s trust and admiration. And the nation’s fourth-longest serving attorney general will forever be remembered as the president’s civil-rights warrior.
It’s a dynamic that didn’t take long to develop.
“I sat next to him at this dinner and we just started talking about a variety of things, sports among them and criminal justice issues. And we saw that we had a lot of similar views and so we just started a relationship that was casual,” Holder said of his first meeting with Obama.
The White House on Thursday was quick to advocate for Holder’s placement in the history books.
“He established a historic legacy of civil rights enforcement and restoring fairness to the criminal justice system,” said one White House official. “Holder revitalized the department’s praised civil rights division, protected the rights of the LGBT community, successfully prosecuted terrorists, and fought tirelessly for voting rights, to name a few.”
