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Arlen Specter Quietly Opens Fire on Eric Holder

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  December 18th, 2008 at 03:08 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Senator Arlen Specter has quietly launched the opening salvo against Eric Holder’s nomination for Attorney General. Though Specter has tried to be discreet, Senate sources have handed me a copy of Specter’s latest letter to Holder that went out yesterday.

The letter shows that “committee staff reviewed [Holder's] questionnaire responses and noted a number of apparent omissions.” Specter is “respectfully ask[ing]” Holder to either supplement his submission or provide explanations for “why [he] believe[s] [his] submission is fully responsive.”

Specter, being Specter, lists eight major defects in Holder’s response. He even gets into the Blagojevich scandal. Specter points out that Holder failed to list op-eds Holder had written in favor of affirmation action and gun ownership restrictions.

He needles Holder for failing to mention a speech he’d given to the left-wing American Constitution Society in which Holder called for a “liberal renaissance.”

The list of 8 omissions is, in themselves, pretty damning. And they don’t even get into Elian Gonzales.

Eric Holder’s nomination is not just about the Rich pardon, which is troubling on its own. There is a whole thread here weaving in and out of his work and bio — a pattern of setting aside judgment and legal analysis in favor of political expediency and, in short, being a partisan yes-man — the very thing the left accused Alberto Gonzales of being.

If the GOP wants a scalp, Holder’s is the one to get. And Specter seems intent on doing so. You can read his letter here.

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  • joaquin

    Arlen Specter? This has to be a mistake. That guy takes the lead on NOTHING. Nothing Republican, that is.

  • http://www.erickerickson.org Erick Erickson

    n/t

  • bk

    “The racist GOP is trying to prevent this highly qualified man from being the first African-American Attorney General of the United States.”

    Any takers on how long before we hear that?

  • bk

    It would be nice to see some of the same Arlen who absolutely destroyed Anita Hill. And you know Specter is pissed about how the GOP side and Bush nominees were treated by Leahy and those other jerks on the Judiciary Committee, so he’ll try to get Leahy tied up in knots occasionally – I have no doubt of that.

  • MelZ

    and will most likely see exactly what you are saying. Sooo, I guess my take is now?

  • http://www.rightsided.org/ Mark Kilmer

    He will face opposition in the Republican primary, possibly from Pat Toomey.

    These things motivate Specter’s thoughts.

  • E Pluribus Unum

    I will send money to a Pat Toomey campaign, just as I did in 2004. It’s nice that Specter will occasionally be a pain in the rear to the other side. But it does not atone for his Lifetime Achievement Award in the category of ‘Submarining the Republican Party’.

  • Aaron Gardner

    now that’s not to say that this will earn him re-election in 2010, just that when moderates are with us on an issue they deserve praise, when they aren’t, derision.

  • uma_richie

    in another contested primary ever.

    Darn, I am STILL bitter.

  • http://www.erickerickson.org Erick Erickson

    For a different thread. In this one, Specter is kicking butt.

  • Socrates

    Oh, wait. Don’t we hate him for being a RINO? I forget what we’re all supposed to think.

    Arlen’s about Arlen. Let’s just hope that for the next 2 years he decides being on our side is in his interest.

  • uma_richie

    nt

  • Moe Lane

    Think of it as operant conditioning, if that helps. :)

  • Kudzu

    Arlen? “Our” Arlen? This can’t be… I think Erick has gone illusionary because of the baby

  • E Pluribus Unum

    But close by for easy access.

  • Aaron Gardner

    Sorry couldn’t resist.

  • http://www.scottbomb.com scottbomb

    Running for the hills every time some plays the race card is getting old. If I’m not mistaken, that’s the same reason why nothing was done about the Freddie/Fannie robbery years ago when the Republicans were in charge.

  • http://www.erickerickson.org Erick Erickson

    Poof.

  • Diogenes314

    …is where I’d prefer to keep Arlen. If it keeps him acting like an actual Republican and looking out for the nation’s welfare to save his political future, excellent. If not, drop the hammer.

    But this is a good sign. Another problem with Holder is his obsession with profiling and how it could effect the illegal immigration issue.

  • E Pluribus Unum

    First, you learn to change diapers, nose hairs curling at the reek.

    Second, you learn to change diapers, and it doesn’t bother you like it used to.

    Next think you know, you are mainlining baby formula .

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  • Finrod

    If only we could light the same fire under the other Senate RINOs that we’ve lit under Arlen. Arlen Specter is now a more reliable voice for the GOP than John McCain is.

  • Jaded

    Do not pay any attention to what your Senator does in his last 2-3 years pay attention to what he does in the first 3-4 because that is his true character!

    These sleazes will always come back to their base on votes and action in the last 2-3 years…if he ain’t conservative 6 full years he ain’t your kind of Senator!

  • janis

    voice for the GOP than McCain is. (That dead white cat really comes in handy. It’s a very versatile moribund animal.)

  • Wayne

    EPU, I never got past “second, the dry heaves” followed by a healthy swallow of Canadian Mist to wash the smell and thought away.

  • RetNAV

    working on Gang of 11 (with Lindsey Graham) to shepherd Obama Cabinet nominees through Senate with minimum delay, in an attempt to show bipartisan support for new President.

  • IJB

    Spccter’s another one of those guys that’s better, and more effective, when he’s in the Minority, at least on the Judiciary Committee.

    When he’s in the Majority, his “bipartisan” tendencies tend to come out, and that’s where things tend to go wrong.

    But when he’s in the Minority, Specter has almost no incentive to “play nice”, and this is when he’s at his best.

    I expect Specter to continue to cut Leahy & co. to ribbons as long as the Dems are running the show.

    Should be fun!

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  • Mark Malcolm

    any bodily fluid from your child ever again because most of them have ended up on you, in your food, or all over skin.

    have you had to change your work clothes yet because you wanted to hold the baby, ‘just one more time’ before leaving in the morning?

  • Mark Malcolm

    and we fall for it like an abused house wife. They vote moderate for the first few years, then realize, ‘oh, yeah, I need those guys to vote me back in here’ and we once again get treated like we are allowed to sit at the grown up table……until he gets reelected again and then we need to be shoved in a back room and taken care of, a la the bailout bill et al. Damn, I needed some punctuation in that sentence….

  • Kudzu

    By magically pulling a story about Arlen Spectator having any set of manhood left after the judge fight

  • 1SGinTN

    for blasting a lot of lefty past performance. I hope “Borked” comes to be replaced by “Holdered”.

  • mbecker908

    Specter will probably go after him. Not so sure about the other so-called Republicans on the Judiciary.

    It’ll be interesting to see what McCain has to say about him (I know he’s not on Judiciary).

  • 1SGinTN

    But you probably know the answer. Who are the R’s on the Judiciary Committee?

  • mbecker908

    The Democrats are:
    Patrick J. Leahy, Chairman, D-Vermont
    Edward M. Kennedy, D-Massachusetts
    Joseph R. Biden, Jr., D-Delaware
    Herb Kohl, D-Wisconsin
    Dianne Feinstein, D-California
    Russell D. Feingold, D-Wisconsin
    Charles E. Schumer, D-New York
    Richard J. Durbin, D-Illinois
    Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Maryland
    Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island

    To a person I think the Democrats on the Judiciary can best be summed up as follows:

    The Republicans are…
    Arlen Specter, Ranking Member, R-Pennsylvania
    In general, can’t be counted on to fight across the board against judicial nominees, but can probably be counted on to make BO’s AG designate’s life miserable.

    Orrin Hatch, R-Utah
    See Specter. Hatch has been in the Senate too long and counts the Dems as “his friends”.

    Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa
    The only thing Grassley fights for is farm pork.

    Jon Kyl, R-Arizona
    Arizona’s only Senator can be counted on to fight for conservative values. I don’t know that he’s up to parliamentary maneuvering that will likely be required over the next four/eight years.
    Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama

    Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina
    A shameful piece of crap.

    John Cornyn, R-Texas
    See Kyl.

    Sam Brownback, R-Kansas
    Who on God’s earth can figure out Sam. Leon is in a better position to comment with some authority on Sam. Personally, I don’t trust the guy as far as I could throw him.

    Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma
    A 10. And probably IS up to the maneuvering.