Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to The New Coffee Room. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Holder for AG
Topic Started: Nov 18 2008, 05:08 PM (65 Views)
George K
Member Avatar
Finally
Washington Post Blog

Quote:
 
Holder, one of two remaining members of Obama’s vice presidential search committee, was always expected to be a lightning rod. As Bill Clinton’s deputy attorney general, he was the gatekeeper for presidential pardons. Most famously, he waved through the pardon for fugitive financier Marc Rich in the waning days of the Clinton White House. But Republicans — through the Republican National Committee, conservative media outlets like the Wall Street Journal editorial page and aggressive freelance operators — are spreading their net wider. One target of opportunity: Clinton’s pardon of 16 Puerto Rican nationalists (or terrorists, depending on your perspective) linked to the FALN, the Spanish acronym for the Armed Forces of National Liberation.



A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
George K
Member Avatar
Finally
Dick Morris adds his 1/50 of a dollar:

Quote:
 
On his first day as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama made his first clear, serious mistake: He named Eric Holder as one of three people charged with vice-presidential vetting.

As deputy attorney general, Holder was the key person who made the pardon of Marc Rich possible in the final hours of the Clinton presidency. Now, Obama will be stuck in the Marc Rich mess.

If ever there was a person who did not deserve a presidential pardon, it's Marc Rich, the fugitive billionaire who renounced his US citizenship and moved to Switzerland to avoid prosecution for racketeering, wire fraud, 51 counts of tax fraud, evading $48 million in taxes, and engaging in illegal trades with Iran in violation of the US embargo following the 1979-80 hostage crisis.

Seventeen years later, Rich wanted a pardon, and he retained Jack Quinn, former counsel to the president, to lobby his old boss.

It was Holder who had originally recommended Quinn to one of Rich's advisers, although he claims that he did not know the identity of the client.

And he gave substantive advice to Quinn along the way. According to Quinn's notes that were produced to Congress, Holder told Quinn to take the pardon application "straight to the White House" because "the timing is good."

And once the pardon was granted, Holder sent his congratulations to Quinn.

In 2002, a congressional committee reported that Holder was a "willing participant in the plan to keep the Justice Department from knowing about and opposing" the Rich pardon.

It is one thing to reach back to Obama's pastor to raise doubts about his values. But it is quite another to scrutinize the record of his first appointee.

It couldn't be a bigger mistake.

A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
George K
Member Avatar
Finally
The New York Times comments on Holder in 2002:

Quote:
 
Mr. Holder, the report says, played a major role, steering Mr. Rich's lawyers toward Jack Quinn, a former White House counsel. Mr. Rich hired Mr. Quinn, whose Washington contacts and ability to lobby the president made the difference, according to the report. It says that Mr. Holder's support for the pardon and his failure to alert prosecutors of a pending pardon were just as crucial.

The report says Mr. Holder became involved through a chance encounter with Gershon Kekst, a prominent public relations strategist who has advised Mr. Rich since 1997. The two men were seated together at a DaimlerChrysler dinner in November 1998, and Mr. Kekst asked what advice Mr. Holder had for someone who had been ''improperly indicted by an overzealous prosecutor.'' Mr. Holder recommended hiring ''a lawyer who knows the process, he comes to me, and we work it out.'' The report acknowledges that Mr. Holder did not realize he was speaking to someone in the Rich camp.

Pressed for a name, the report says, Mr. Holder pointed to Mr. Quinn nearby, saying: ''There's Jack Quinn. He's a perfect example.''

Mr. Holder's lawyer, Reid Weingarten, says the exchange was innocent. He said his client ''was at a Chrysler dinner, and a total stranger came up to him and engaged him in conversation about how the world works and mentions Jack Quinn.''

''Eric said positive things about Jack,'' Mr. Weingarten said. ''But the idea that he was hustling business for Jack Quinn didn't happen.''

The panel criticized Mr. Holder's conduct as unconscionable and cited several problems. It cited his admission last year that he had hoped Mr. Quinn would support his becoming attorney general in a Gore administration.

The report quoted an e-mail message on Nov. 18, 2000, that Mr. Quinn sent others on the Rich team as they wrote the pardon petition. In the message, Mr. Quinn recounts speaking to ''Eric'' the night before. ''He says go straight to wh. also says timing is good,'' Mr. Quinn wrote, using shorthand for the White House.

Mr. Weingarten said Mr. Holder did nothing improper. ''Eric never told Jack Quinn or anyone else to circumvent the Justice Department,'' he said.

The report faults Mr. Quinn for lobbying the White House at all in light of prevailing ethics rules that barred top aides from lobbying former colleagues for five years after leaving government. Mr. Quinn argued that the rules allowed flexibility for judicial proceedings. But Judge Denny Chin of United States District Court in Manhattan ruled in December that Mr. Quinn's role was more lobbying than lawyering.


It will be interesting to see what the Paper of Record has to say on this potential appointment in view of its criticisms of Holder 6 years ago.

A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
George K
Member Avatar
Finally
Keeps getting better and better. Here's how the MSM reported Obama's choice of Holder this evening. Compare and contrast with what happened eight years ago.

What word doesn't appear in tonights news broadcasts about Holder?
Quote:
 
ABC:

2000, World News Tonight.
Quote:
 
George W. Bush has chosen the person he wants to be Attorney General. He is the 58-year old soon to be former Senator John Ashcroft of Missouri. Senator Ashcroft lost his bid for re-election this year. The Senator is a former law professor and former Attorney General of Missouri and Governor -- from the conservative wing of the Republican Party. And some of the positions he’s taken as a politician have galvanized liberal opposition to his nomination today.

2008, World News. Charles Gibson:
Quote:
 
Since he was elected, Barack Obama has largely been staying out of public view, working on his cabinet. He has signaled that in the cabinet, there will be diversity, diversity of political party, of gender, of geography and of race. Today, ABC News has learned he will turn to one of his close associates to be the new Attorney General. If confirmed, Eric Holder would be the first African-American to hold that post.



Quote:
 
CBS Evening News.

2000, Dan Rather:
Quote:
 
Good evening. Anti-abortion groups and the self-described Religious Right could not be happier with President-elect George Bush’s nominee for U.S. Attorney General. Bush today named John Ashcroft, a just-defeated Republican Senator from Missouri known for his tough anti-abortion stand. Planned Parenthood immediately urged Congress not to confirm him. Bush also named New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman, who supports abortion rights, for a post with no role in abortion policy. She was picked to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

2008, Katie Couric:
Quote:
 
And now to the incoming Obama administration, which takes over in nine weeks. The President-elect made his first cabinet selection today. Chip Reid is in Washington and, Chip, it's another historic choice.

Quote:
 
NBC Nightly News. Brian Williams led the broadcast by emphasizing Ashcroft’s appeal to the "far right" of the GOP:
Quote:
 
America’s second ever Bush administration is taking shape tonight with the naming of a GOP veteran to a crucial position. If confirmed, conservative Missouri Republican Senator John Ashcroft will be this nation’s next Attorney General. With this move Mr. Bush rewards a defeated U.S. Senator, calms the far right politically and makes a decidedly law and order statement.

2008, Williams:
Quote:
 
Now we turn to the presidential transition and word today that Barack Obama has made his choice for Attorney General. He is Eric Holder, a veteran lawyer, former U.S. Attorney, number two person at the Justice Department during the Clinton administration. If confirmed, Eric Holder would be the first African-American to become the nation's top law enforcement officer.


Here's a clue: The word missing starts with an "L".

Can anyone tell me, with a straight face, that there's no agenda there?

A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Free Forums with no limits on posts or members.
Learn More · Register Now
« Previous Topic · The New Coffee Room · Next Topic »
Add Reply