Eric Holder is Getting Nervous About Incoming House Oversight Committee

              Can You Guess Which is Which?




I have no personal axe to grind with Eric Holder, never personally met him or corresponded. But nevertheless, it is my personal opinion that he has been an absolute nightmare as Attorney General. In his short two year stint as AG he has turned the Justice Department into a tool to racially divide the country, and made America a more dangerous place by appeasing terrorists, placing CIA agents in danger and suing Arizona for trying to enforce existing laws, and through it all has gotten a pass by the progressives that have been running Congress.

But in January the GOP is taking over the House and the House Oversight Committee and Eric Holder is starting to get a bit nervous. Today he urged the Committee to stay away from the political and focus on substantive issues. Considering that most of Holder's decisions as AG have been political, we can assume that by substantive the AG means things that he agrees with.

Before November's mid-term elections, Republicans on Capitol Hill promised to investigate allegations by two attorneys -- one currently with the Justice Department -- that the department's Civil Rights Division is "hostile" toward "race-neutral enforcement" of voting rights laws. But the Justice Department has repeatedly denied such allegations, and congressional hearings on the matter are not a sure thing, with the House Judiciary Committee yet to place such a hearing on its calendar, according to one committee staffer.

"I am committed to fair and reasonable oversight of the Justice Department and to ensuring openness and transparency of our federal law enforcement agencies," incoming committee chairman Lamar Smith, R-Tex., said in a statement.

But, Smith said, the allegations against the Justice Department are "troubling," and, "We need to make sure that our laws are being equally enforced."

During his testimony in September before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights , current Justice Department attorney Christopher Coates insisted there is a "deep-seated opposition to the equal enforcement of the Voting Rights Act against racial minorities and for the protection of white voters who had been discriminated against."

While acknowledging he and Smith "obviously have a different perspective on a number of things," Holder on Wednesday said he hopes Smith will focus on "things that have impact on the day-to-day lives of the American people," citing such issues as national security, the Gulf Coast oil spill and even civil rights.

...Holder said he hopes he and Smith will "have a good dialogue, and that it will be based on things that really matter to the American people."

Smith agreed but pointed out that there are many things that needed to be looked into.

In his statement, Smith said that -- in addition to ensuring equal enforcement of civil rights laws -- the House Judiciary Committee "also needs to make sure that federal laws are being enforced to the fullest extent," citing immigration issues and national security matters."

"We could help make millions of jobs available for legal workers if we simply enforced our immigration laws," and, "We will continue to work with the Justice Department to ensure that our federal law enforcement agencies have the resources they need to prevent terrorist attacks," he said.

Nevertheless, inquiries related to the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division are on the table. The committee will "likely" first send a letter to the Justice Department renewing previous requests for information about allegations made against the Civil Rights Division, according to one committee staffer.

Hopefully Smith will do his job an gain an understating of why Holder is fighting the enforcement of immigration laws, why he refused to investigate ACORN, is investigating CIA personnel for recommendations they made during the Bush administration, trying terrorists in civilian courts and much much more.  These are not political witch hunts, these are attempts to understand moves that have hurt the country.