Legal News

Does Obama Have an Eric Holder Problem?

By Ashby Jones

Here’s the lede to WSJ Justice Department reporter Evan Perez’s story on Tuesday about U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder:

Eric Holder has spent much of his first year as attorney general trying to reverse a series of Bush administration policies. But the controversies provoked by his decisions threaten to derail his career, just as the original policies undermined the career of one of his recent predecessors.

We were struck by the words “derail his career.” Wowza. We knew Holder was having a rough go of it, what with a big stumble over KSM and difficulties on the Guantanamo front, but are we really now talking about a career that’s in a death spiral?

According to Perez’s story, the answer might be yes. Consider this comparison:

A year into Mr. Holder’s tenure, one former ally is wielding comparisons to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a lightning rod for the left over the treatment of terror suspects, who was ultimately drummed out of office in 2007 over the firings of U.S. attorneys.

Eric Holder as the new Alberto Gonzales — a lightning rod for controversy throughout his tenure as the nation’s top cop? Yipes.

Perez writes that Holder has pleased nearly nobody. Not the right, who criticize him for releasing Bush-era memos on the CIA’s interrogation program. Not the left, who think he’s adopted too many of the old Bush policies.

For now, Holder’s still got the support where it counts. A senior White House official says the president stands behind Holder. And Matthew Miller, a Justice spokesman, said many of the department’s biggest controversies this year were held over from the prior administration. “There is no way to make everyone happy dealing with those issues, and if you did, it probably means you did something wrong,” he said.

Still, the naysayers are increasingly showing they’re willing to point fingers directly at Holder.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who voted for Holder’s confirmation in February 2009, said the attorney general needed to “restore the confidence of the Congress and even the president.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 23, 2010 (boomark / email).