Would it be correct to assert that Barack Obama is two faced? Or that many of those he has surrounded himself with and placed into high government cabinet positions are also?
You decide. IMO, this is certainly a peek in the box of how these people have operated and how they intend to operate.
Last winter, when Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. called the United States a “nation of cowards” for avoiding frank conversations on race, President Obama mildly rebuked him in public.
Taking the Heat “I have to do a better job in explaining the decisions that I have made,” Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said.
Out of view, Mr. Obama’s aides did far more. Rahm Emanuel and Jim Messina, the White House chief and deputy chief of staff, proposed installing a minder alongside Mr. Holder to prevent further gaffes — someone with better “political antennae,” as one administration official put it.
When he heard of the proposal at a White House meeting, Mr. Holder fumed; soon after, he confronted his deputy, David W. Ogden, who knew of the plan but had not alerted his boss, according to several officials. Mr. Holder fought off the proposal, signaling that his job was about the law, not political messaging.
A year later, he is no longer so certain. His most important plan — to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described architect of the Sept. 11 attacks, in federal court in Manhattan — collapsed before it even began, after support from the public and local officials withered.
Now Mr. Holder has switched from resisting what he had considered encroachment by White House political officials to seeking their guidance. Two weeks ago, he met with advisers there to discuss how to unite against common foes. They agreed to allow Mr. Holder, who has not appeared on a Sunday talk show since entering office, to speak out more; he agreed to let them help hone his message.
The political attacks over terrorism cases were “starting to constrain my ability to function as attorney general,” he said in an interview last week. “I have to do a better job in explaining the decisions that I have made,” Mr. Holder also said, adding, “I have to be more forceful in advocating for why I believe these are trials that should be held on the civilian side.”
But now Mr. Holder is in the awkward position of pushing for an approach that he acknowledges he would accept defeat on. The administration hopes to announce a new venue for the Sept. 11 trial within three weeks, he said last Tuesday. But Congress could pass legislation requiring that Mr. Mohammed be tried by a military commission, or Mr. Obama himself could change direction.
“You always have to be flexible,” Mr. Holder said, allowing that justice could be served in a commission trial, too, and praising generals who “adapt their game plans” as the situation changes.
In interviews, White House officials uniformly conveyed support, even sympathy, for Mr. Holder. “He’s in a very tough spot,” said David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama, who added that he would help Mr. Holder with a communications strategy only after the legal decisions had been made. “All he wants to do is bring these people to justice.”
The coming weeks could determine the ultimate shape of Obama-era detainee policy. They could also define the sort of attorney general Mr. Holder turns out to be: how unyielding, how capable of persuading those inside the administration — including Mr. Obama — and outside to accept his judgment.
He arrived determined to assert the Justice Department’s independence. A self-described “student of history,” he outfitted his conference room with reminders of what it takes to join the ranks of the most respected attorneys general: portraits of lionized predecessors, including some who defied their presidents or restored the Justice Department after scandal.
But Mr. Holder acknowledges that national security crises make it harder to answer the perennial question of where the Justice Department’s authority stops and the White House’s begins. And he says he wants to avoid a repeat of the sometimes strained relationship that former Attorney General Janet Reno, whom he served as deputy, had with President Bill Clinton.
“I’m part of this team,” he said, adding, “I’ve experienced the other side, where the department has lost touch with the administration that it was a part of, and I’m not going to let that happen.”
When it comes to traditional criminal justice issues, like white-collar crime and sentencing reform, Mr. Holder holds views accrued over decades as a prosecutor, judge, Justice Department official and lawyer in private practice.
But his national security résumé is short, his genial temperament may be unsuited to political combat, and his approach to terrorism is guided more by case-specific pragmatism than an overarching ideology reducible to sound-bites.
“Eric is an on-the-merits guy,” said Reid Weingarten, a Washington lawyer and a close friend from Mr. Holder’s early days at the department, three decades ago. “Case by case. Does that work in a changing world?”
There are two more pages that are well worth the read IMO.
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