Attorney General Holder to resign

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Developing...

[3rdwaydem]

1. I am so saddened to hear this. I really admired him.

[Le Taz Hot]

2. I'd rejoice

except I know Obama will just nominate another milquetoast corporate-friendly, "lets arrest the pot growers and not the banksters" replacement.

[99Forever]

9. ^^^This^^^

I wish it wasn't so, but it's what his history predicts.

[jwirr]

12. What other kind of appointee can he get through the nomination process?

[Le Taz Hot]

14. The status quo has brought us to the point that nominees must be

bad to mediocre which is why we have AGs going after pot growers as opposed to going after the criminal 1%. Maybe we should think about raising the bar and nominating someone mediocre to decent. We can work on good to great after that.

[jwirr]

15. I agree entirely. I just do not blame Obama.

[Le Taz Hot]

17. Why not?

Holder is his nominee and AGs carry out the president's agenda. Instead of taking up this defeatist attitude in response to Republican obstructionist policies, which will ensure the status quo remains, why not just once, just one time, at least try to raise the bar? Obama just doesn't seem to have the desire and/or stomach for a fight which means the 99% effectively have NO representation. 2016 is coming up and we need to do WAY better.

[jwirr]

19. I was not talking about Holder I was talking about the obstruction of nominees that happens all the

time. If they cannot do it one way then they will find another way. This is the reason I do not blame Obama. I am old enough to have seen this before but never to the point that the institution is not working at all anymore.

As to the fight - we do not even back him here on DU. The 99% have done little to help in this fight. And no president can do it alone.

We have an enemy at home and they outright tell us what they are doing and no one sees them (Rs) as a problem ----- it is all Obama's fault.

[Le Taz Hot]

21. And I'm old enough to remember when Democratic LEADERS

weren't afraid to go to the wall for nominees/issues about which they were passionate. You think a woman's right to choose was easy? The Civil Rights Act, The (now gutted) Voting Rights Act? No, they were all as a result of the Democrats taking it to the mat. The president should be LEADING the way, not following what his corporate masters tell him to do.

[jwirr]

22. Born in 1941. Remember - back then we did not have to have 60 votes to even get a bill on the

floor for a vote. And the filibuster was a whole different ball of wax. And it was still hard to get those issues enacted. The best of Democratic congress persons today can usually only stand up and tell it like it is. If we do not change the makeup of Congress in 2014 we are going to be lucky if we ever get to vote again due to voter obstruction. They will find a way of stopping all of us.

[GummyBearz]

18. Well put

Well put, except you left out the total lack of caring about police shooting innocent black guys and getting off the hook. So much failure on his end.

[cali]

3. Surprising. I wonder why.

[NuclearDem]

4. And gun nuts across the country have a massive collective orgasm.

[Brother Buzz]

5. NPR's piece broke first, and I suspect it will prove to be as good as everything following it

Eric Holder To Step Down As Attorney General

by Carrie Johnson
September 25, 2014




Eric Holder Jr., the nation's first black U.S. attorney general, is preparing to announce his resignation Thursday after a tumultuous tenure marked by civil rights advances, national security threats, reforms to the criminal justice system and five and a half years of fights with Republicans in Congress.

Two sources familiar with the decision tell NPR that Holder, 63, intends to leave the Justice Department as soon as his successor is confirmed, a process that could run through 2014 and even into next year. A former U.S. government official says Holder has been increasingly "adamant" about his desire to leave soon for fear he otherwise could be locked in to stay for much of the rest of President Obama's second term.

Holder already is one of the longest serving members of the Obama cabinet and ranks as the fourth longest tenured AG in history. Hundreds of employees waited in lines, stacked three rows deep, for his return in early February 2009 to the Justice Department, where he previously worked as a young corruption prosecutor and as deputy attorney general — the second in command — during the Clinton administration.

But some of that early glow faded in part due to the politicized nature of the job and in part because of Holder's own rhetoric, such as a 2009 Black History Month speech where he said the country was "a nation of cowards" when it comes to discussions about racial tension.

<more>

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/09/25/351363171/eric-holder-to-step-down-as-attorney-general

[TBF]

6. I suspect it's reality - 3 high school/college aged kids & only 2 years

to go. He'll go to an association or law firm and quadruple his salary (at least) so he can pay for college for all 3.

This is not new in DC - happens with personnel from every administration as they wind down.

[cali]

10. that's not the reason.

He can afford colleges for his kids just fine.

http://www.therichest.com/celebnetworth/celeb/eric-holder-net-worth/

[TBF]

13. Wow - had no idea he was that well off.

Saw so many going from administrations back into private practice in Washington ... so just assumed that was the case with him as well. Gov't doesn't pay nearly as well as the private firms.

So what is going on? I know he was going to investigate in Ferguson? Is that pissing someone off?

[Terra Alta]

7. Interesting.

I wonder why. I know he was doing a lot of work trying to get clemency for non-violent drug offenders. I hope his successor keeps up the fight for clemency for these people sentenced under draconian drug laws and mandatory minimums.

[frazzled]

8. I think he wanted to leave at the end of the first term

but was asked to stay on.

Actually, with the exception of Janet Reno, who served both terms of President Clinton's administration, the typical length of time modern AGs have served has been 2 or 3 years, with a few serving a full four-year term (see list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Attorney_General ).

That Holder will have served 6 years by the time his replacement is found is unusually long. It must be an incredibly stressful job. I wonder what he will do next.

[tularetom]

11. Well, he's earned it after prosecuting all those crooked bankers and war criminals

Oh wait...

[Octafish]

16. Best wishes from a friend of Don Siegelman!

Will the general remain in government service or will he be returning to private practice?

[bigwillq]

20. Good riddance (nt)