…and good riddance. He should never have been confirmed.
22 thoughts on “Goodbye, Eric Holder”
Trampling on the “nation of cowards” wasn’t good enough for him, or is this just an excuse to lose all his e-mails?
I can hear the hard drives in DC crashing all the way out here on the west coast.
Darn. He’s leaving just as there was a real “shot for being black” case in South Carolina.
The officer should get 20-years in jail for eight levels of authoritarian incompetence, and he should never have been allowed to touch a weapon. Even muggers don’t generally shoot you for getting your wallet when commanded to do so, and they don’t keep shooting when the hands are clearly both in the air. And as the guy is laying on the ground, bleeding, the officer is still determined to handcuff him and find his ID instead of rendering aid, as if finding an expired license might justify shooting someone pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt (the original infraction). Thankfully, the victim is recovering at home from a single gunshot to the hip, since the officer can’t hit the side of a barn, either. Lord only knows where all the other bullets landed.
We don’t see what happened before the video starts so we don’t know if the cop followed the driver into the gas station or if he had prior contact with the victim.
The video opens with the cop behind a truck while in the parking lot of a gas station. The cop then drives through the parking lot and then prepares to exit, when the cop then throws the car in reverse and goes back to confront a man in a SUV.
The man was already outside his SUV when the cop confronted him.
The video doesn’t show any use of lights or sirens. The cop just pops out from behind this guy while he is waiting in line.
There isn’t anything to indicate racism played a roll but that cop should never wear a badge again and should be in jail.
The officer thought he faced a deadly threat, but so wrongly that you wish our legal system could have a verdict of “He will be stripped of all ranks and titles, branded with the sign of a tight-wound dumbass who is a threat to himself and others, and banished in perpetuity to the hinterlands where none but beasts roam.”
You can’t shoot black people for quickly and obediently obeying a white officials orders, however unwarranted and contradictory, or American sports will collapse. The cop was an armed and lethal version of Bobby Knight unleashed onto an unsuspecting populace.
As an aside, around a decade ago a Kentucky judges banished some National Guardsman who’d become a stalker for some girl in his unit, and other judges and legal scholars thought it was hilarious, unheard of in modern times, and perfectly legal. Banishment would solve a lot of domestic disputes.
I’ve since read a report on the aftermath of this incident, and I have to say if it had been me pulled over and asked for ID and my wallet was still in the car, the first thing I would have done is say, “It’s in my wallet, right there on the seat, I’ll need to reach for it.”
But then, I used to live in a neighborhood where someone reaching into their car on a traffic stop was as likely to be going for a gun as not.
Where I come from, if a cop pulls you over you stay in the car unless ordered out. Any cop, anywhere, will view the person getting out of the car at a traffic stop as a threat.
Holder is leaving? Looks like Obama needs another Koskinen.
Holder must of seen the writing on the wall with the IRS scandal. I’m sure he’s got a nice cushy landing somewhere. Ya think Arpaio would be interested in Eric’s old job?
Neither side wants Joe Arpaio anywhere near DC. He’d actually do the job. And considering how Arpaio is the head cheerleader of the Birther contingent, I’d say the likelihood of Obama appointing him is slightly less than Obama appointing Dick Cheney.
Or the Obama administration may be doing some house cleaning ahead of the 2014 elections.
“Or the Obama administration may be doing some house cleaning ahead of the 2014 elections.”
This was my reaction, too, pretty much in a nutshell. See also: why I think Obama authorized airstrikes against ISIS/ISIL.
Funny how major international events only tend to occur in September and October of even-numbered years lately…
That would explain all the copy/paste attacks on comments sections saying that if you don’t support Obama going to war before going to congress or the UN you support ISIS.
I’m confused by this, as he seemed to be doing such a great job stonewalling for the President.
Who do they want to replace him with, and can they get him or her confirmed before the next senate is sworn in? Or are they counting on a recess appointment?
The Democrats must be counting on winning big this fall. If they don’t it’ll be a Republican senate doing the vetting.
Assuming there isn’t time to confirm someone before the next Congress, if the GOP takes the Senate they’ll have the power to block a successor. But Holder says he’ll stay on until his successor is confirmed, so blocking a replacement only extends Holder’s stay.
Holder has outlasted all but two other original cabinet members. The surprise isn’t that he’s leaving (something he revealed early this year), but that he kept at it so long.
The power, but the will?
“The surprise isn’t that he’s leaving (something he revealed early this year), but that he kept at it so long.”
There have been reports that Holder wasn’t going to be there for Obama’s whole term. There were even rumors he wouldn’t be around after the last election. But his departure wasn’t planned.
A planned departure would mean that his successor would already have been chosen and announced to the press. Perhaps the news would be staggered a bit to consume more media cycles to get the maximum distraction from Obama’s failed policies but a successor would already have been chosen.
The unplanned announcement means that Holder is being forced out by events or infighting but the loyalty between Obama and Holder is unquestioned.
Maybe his office getting busted coordinating leaks and PR campaigns with congressional Democrats and the media while supposedly being the impartial investigators into “nonpolitical” scandals has something to do with it.
Unless they shove it through in a lame-duck session after the election.
My mother-in-law saw something about the current California attorney general as a possibility, but I haven’t followed it up.
Trampling on the “nation of cowards” wasn’t good enough for him, or is this just an excuse to lose all his e-mails?
I can hear the hard drives in DC crashing all the way out here on the west coast.
Darn. He’s leaving just as there was a real “shot for being black” case in South Carolina.
The officer should get 20-years in jail for eight levels of authoritarian incompetence, and he should never have been allowed to touch a weapon. Even muggers don’t generally shoot you for getting your wallet when commanded to do so, and they don’t keep shooting when the hands are clearly both in the air. And as the guy is laying on the ground, bleeding, the officer is still determined to handcuff him and find his ID instead of rendering aid, as if finding an expired license might justify shooting someone pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt (the original infraction). Thankfully, the victim is recovering at home from a single gunshot to the hip, since the officer can’t hit the side of a barn, either. Lord only knows where all the other bullets landed.
The cop’s own foot?
Legal Insurrection has some more info and a bit of analysis on ths: http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/09/new-video-released-in-dash-cam-shooting/
There are a lot of problems in that video.
We don’t see what happened before the video starts so we don’t know if the cop followed the driver into the gas station or if he had prior contact with the victim.
The video opens with the cop behind a truck while in the parking lot of a gas station. The cop then drives through the parking lot and then prepares to exit, when the cop then throws the car in reverse and goes back to confront a man in a SUV.
The man was already outside his SUV when the cop confronted him.
The video doesn’t show any use of lights or sirens. The cop just pops out from behind this guy while he is waiting in line.
There isn’t anything to indicate racism played a roll but that cop should never wear a badge again and should be in jail.
The officer thought he faced a deadly threat, but so wrongly that you wish our legal system could have a verdict of “He will be stripped of all ranks and titles, branded with the sign of a tight-wound dumbass who is a threat to himself and others, and banished in perpetuity to the hinterlands where none but beasts roam.”
You can’t shoot black people for quickly and obediently obeying a white officials orders, however unwarranted and contradictory, or American sports will collapse. The cop was an armed and lethal version of Bobby Knight unleashed onto an unsuspecting populace.
As an aside, around a decade ago a Kentucky judges banished some National Guardsman who’d become a stalker for some girl in his unit, and other judges and legal scholars thought it was hilarious, unheard of in modern times, and perfectly legal. Banishment would solve a lot of domestic disputes.
I’ve since read a report on the aftermath of this incident, and I have to say if it had been me pulled over and asked for ID and my wallet was still in the car, the first thing I would have done is say, “It’s in my wallet, right there on the seat, I’ll need to reach for it.”
But then, I used to live in a neighborhood where someone reaching into their car on a traffic stop was as likely to be going for a gun as not.
Where I come from, if a cop pulls you over you stay in the car unless ordered out. Any cop, anywhere, will view the person getting out of the car at a traffic stop as a threat.
Holder is leaving? Looks like Obama needs another Koskinen.
Holder must of seen the writing on the wall with the IRS scandal. I’m sure he’s got a nice cushy landing somewhere. Ya think Arpaio would be interested in Eric’s old job?
Neither side wants Joe Arpaio anywhere near DC. He’d actually do the job. And considering how Arpaio is the head cheerleader of the Birther contingent, I’d say the likelihood of Obama appointing him is slightly less than Obama appointing Dick Cheney.
Or the Obama administration may be doing some house cleaning ahead of the 2014 elections.
“Or the Obama administration may be doing some house cleaning ahead of the 2014 elections.”
This was my reaction, too, pretty much in a nutshell. See also: why I think Obama authorized airstrikes against ISIS/ISIL.
Funny how major international events only tend to occur in September and October of even-numbered years lately…
That would explain all the copy/paste attacks on comments sections saying that if you don’t support Obama going to war before going to congress or the UN you support ISIS.
I’m confused by this, as he seemed to be doing such a great job stonewalling for the President.
Who do they want to replace him with, and can they get him or her confirmed before the next senate is sworn in? Or are they counting on a recess appointment?
The Democrats must be counting on winning big this fall. If they don’t it’ll be a Republican senate doing the vetting.
Assuming there isn’t time to confirm someone before the next Congress, if the GOP takes the Senate they’ll have the power to block a successor. But Holder says he’ll stay on until his successor is confirmed, so blocking a replacement only extends Holder’s stay.
Holder has outlasted all but two other original cabinet members. The surprise isn’t that he’s leaving (something he revealed early this year), but that he kept at it so long.
The power, but the will?
“The surprise isn’t that he’s leaving (something he revealed early this year), but that he kept at it so long.”
There have been reports that Holder wasn’t going to be there for Obama’s whole term. There were even rumors he wouldn’t be around after the last election. But his departure wasn’t planned.
A planned departure would mean that his successor would already have been chosen and announced to the press. Perhaps the news would be staggered a bit to consume more media cycles to get the maximum distraction from Obama’s failed policies but a successor would already have been chosen.
The unplanned announcement means that Holder is being forced out by events or infighting but the loyalty between Obama and Holder is unquestioned.
Maybe his office getting busted coordinating leaks and PR campaigns with congressional Democrats and the media while supposedly being the impartial investigators into “nonpolitical” scandals has something to do with it.
Unless they shove it through in a lame-duck session after the election.
My mother-in-law saw something about the current California attorney general as a possibility, but I haven’t followed it up.