President Barack Obama congratulates Atty. Gen'l. Eric H. Holder Jr. after an installation ceremony as 82nd Attorney General of the United States at George Washington University. (Photo by Paul J. Richards / AFP / Getty Images)
by Mark Silva
"Like me, Eric married up,'' President Barack Obama said of Eric Holder, his attorney general, ceremonially installed today.
President George W. Bush used to say the same of himself and Laura Bush and commend others around him for marrying up.
But this is not Bush's father's Justice Department anymore.
This is the place, with the main building named for the late Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, where someone else stood and waved today - Ethel Kennedy, widow of a slain presidential candidate. He had "married up'' as well - the crowd applaued her at Holder's installation (he had been sworn in before this).
"This is our time,'' Holder told his audience. "This is our time.''
Holder, the first African-American attorney general, is the chief law enforcement officer who would like to see the nation get a conversation about race going - "though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," Holder recently said.
Obama, the first African-American president, suggests that his administration has moved on. Asked this week at his news conference about his "historic presidency,'' and whether the question of race has come up in policy deliberations or whether "the last 64 days been a relatively colorblind time,'' the president said this:
"Tthe last 64 days has been dominated by me trying to figure out how we're going to fix the economy. And that's -- affects black, brown and white,'' he said. "At the inauguration I think that there was justifiable pride on the part of the country that we had taken a step to move us beyond some of the searing legacies of racial discrimination in this country. But that lasted about a day.... and, you know, right now the American people are judging me exactly the way I should be judged'' -- on fixing the economy.
So today, the president was talking about the job that Holder has -- "there are few more important jobs in our nation's government than that of Attorney General.''
There was a bit of basketball banter -- leading the <strong>New York Daily News to wonder if Obama, who played in Hawaii, could "take'' Holder, who played in Queens, on the basketball court -- but a lot more high-minded talk about the mission of the Department of Justice -- all worth reading:
"Today, as we install the man charged with upholding our laws, we are reminded that the work of translating law into justice -- of ensuring that those words put to paper more than two centuries ago mean something for all of our people -- that is a fundamentally human process,'' the president said.
"That's why I sought to appoint an Attorney General who understands that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory, or footnote in a casebook -- it's about how our laws affect the daily realities of people's lives: whether they can make a living and care for their families; whether they feel safe in their own homes and welcome in their own nation.
"I sought someone who recognizes the very real threats we face, but has the wisdom, in those hard-to-call cases, to find that fine balance between ensuring our security and preserving our liberty,'' he said. "And most of all, I was looking for someone who believes deeply enough in the American people's cause to serve as the American people's lawyer....
"Now, I can't vouch for Eric's skills on the basketball court,'' Obama added, " but I can confirm that he is thoroughly prepared to take on the law enforcement challenges of this new century.''
" Let me just depart here and say that he's never going to see my New York game,'' Holder said of Obama. "He's got 10 years on me, he works out, I'm the coach of the team in which he will be playing, and nothing more than that... But had I been 10 years younger....''
On the serious side:
" Ours is a nation of laws guided by principles that reflect the essential goodness of the American people,'' Holder said. " Many of these values -- adherence to the rule of law, equality before the law, and the applicability of due process -- are as well known as they are timeless. And yet these principles can only be true -- truly the animating forces of our legal system if we, both individually and collectively, make it so....
"It will not always be easy to solely let these principles serve as the enduring markers that guide our path. This will be particularly true when we face unforeseen and even existential challenges. And it won't always be popular as we apply them to unfamiliar dangers. But it will always be right.
"There are some who say that we can no longer afford to use these principles as our foundation. There are some who say that the challenges we face are too grave, that the stakes are too high. And there are some who say that these principles weaken us as we meet the challenges of this modern age.
"But here is what I say: The power of this nation is at its zenith when the actions of our government are firmly grounded on the bedrock of the rule of law and the values that make our nation unique,'' Holder said. "Tthe true test of our nation's greatness is whether we uphold our most cherished principles not when it is easy, but when it is hard. Our nation, our department must meet this test this time. We have done so in the past; we will do so again...
"Here is my commitment to you as the new Attorney General: We at the Department of Justice will protect our people from those abroad and from those within our borders who seek to do us harm. We will protect our nation's markets from fraud and from those who prey on the vulnerable. We will protect the civil rights of our fellow citizens -- all of our fellow citizens -- in the workplace, in the housing market, in the educational institutions, and in the voting booth, as well as in their day-to-day lives. We will protect our environment from depredation and our public institutions from corruption. We will be fair and we will be just in all of the things that we do.
"And we will zealously protect our Constitution -- indeed, the very rule of law itself -- from those who would force upon us the false choice between security and liberty, between safety and justice...
"This is our time,'' Holder said. " This is our time.''
Comments
Hosea 1:10-11
The Restoration of Israel
10 “ Yet the number of the children of Israel
Shall be as the sand of the sea,
Which cannot be measured or numbered.
And it shall come to pass
In the place where it was said to them,
‘ You are not My people,’
There it shall be said to them,
‘ You are sons of the living God.’
11 Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel
Shall be gathered together,
And appoint for themselves one head;
And they shall come up out of the land,
For great will be the day of Jezreel!
Posted by: Judah | March 27, 2009 1:33 PM
Why would this man want to protect a nation of COWARDS ? Is he as sick as Obambie ?
Posted by: Old Mo | March 27, 2009 1:50 PM
Thank you Attorney General Holder, you give us again strength, trust and hope. We will be a stronger and better country again.
elly sherman
Posted by: elly sherman | March 27, 2009 1:50 PM
“The power of this nation is at its zenith when the actions of our government are firmly grounded on the bedrock of the rule of law and the values that make our nation unique.”
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This is pure hypocrisy coming from someone who favors his own ideology over the plain meaning of the Constitution’s text.
Posted by: John W. | March 27, 2009 2:18 PM
Looks as if Holder is going to make a lot of "goofs" with his big mouth "ah la Clinton".
Posted by: Inky | March 27, 2009 4:35 PM
This is pure hypocrisy coming from someone who favors his own ideology over the plain meaning of the Constitution’s text.
Posted by: John W. | March 27, 2009 2:18 PM
Thus speaks the greatest Constitutional scholar in our nation's history. John W knows more about the Constitution than any Supreme Court Justice ever. Anyone who disagrees with his interpretation is wrong. Period. Discussion and arguement will not be tolerated. The fact that his views of the Constitution are well beyondeven the most strict Constructionalist Supreme Court Rulings is immaterial. The fact the the Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld laws that John W has determined are unconstitutional is of no importance. John W has spoken. He is the Authority, no one else.
Holder? He knows nothing next to a great mind like John W. Thurgood Marshall? Don't make me laugh, John W is his superior in every way. Earl Warren? Not fit to be John W's law clerk.
Don't believe me? Ask John W. He'll tell you the same thing.
Posted by: All Hail the Judge!!!!! | March 27, 2009 5:45 PM
You know, Thurgood Marshall used to take the train to towns in the deep south in the 1930's and defend blacks in capital cases.
When there was a very real danger that not only his client would be lynched, but he would as well.
That's why I have to laugh at poseurs like Clarence Thomas who thinks he was badly treated at some confirmation hearing. He never put his life on the line for anything.
Including serving in the military.
Whereas a lot of Americans did.
Which brings up the subject of Holder, who seems to forget that a Civil War was fought over the issue of slavery.
And a President assassinated.
Eric Holder did not put his life on the line, either, and has no standing to lecture Americans about their "cowardice".
If he were smart, which I assume he is, he would concentrate on indicting white collar criminals like Madoff.
That would make him somewhat more popular with the cowardly Americans out there.
Posted by: ornery | March 27, 2009 10:44 PM
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“Don't believe me? Ask John W. He'll tell you the same thing.”
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Posted by: All Hail the Judge!!!!! | March 27, 2009 5:45 PM
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Really? What a bunch of nonsense. You are such a coward that you can’t even use your own name. And you aren’t even honest enough or clever enough to try to use examples to back up anything you have said. It’s all damnation with faint praise, which is to say: bull****. That odor is familiar around here, though.
Posted by: John W. | March 27, 2009 11:17 PM
He will be judged, as well as Obama, when the first released Gitmo " misguided, confused and unduly indoctrinated, educational deficient and troubled, illegally detained" person of interest is released in the US and commits a crime against America. That is lawyer speak for enemy combatant.
Posted by: bubba Porter | March 28, 2009 9:19 AM
John w, I'm not criticizing, you, Far from it. I have come to believe that you really are the only legitimate source for Coonstuitutional decisions. I believe that the disdain you show for any lawyer, judge or jJustice who disagrees with you is fully deserved. You truly do stand head and shoulders abover evey Supreme Court Justice of the past century.You're superior attitude towward all of them is fully deserved. Why be humble when you're a legal genius of your caliber? Why pretend that any legal postion other than yours could possibly have merit? Clearly it cannot. Holder, Marshal, Warren, all name that pale in the light of that great legal name, the one to be remembered through all history, JOHN W.
Posted by: All Hail the Judge!!!!!!! | March 28, 2009 11:17 AM
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Posted by: All Hail the Judge!!!!!!! | March 28, 2009 11:17 AM
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Just knock off the crap, already. You are dumber than even you can imagine if you think I believe you.
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Besides, what’s are “Coonstuitutional decisions,” and why should anyone believe anyone who would write such a thing?
Posted by: John W. | March 28, 2009 2:25 PM
According to Obama, Holder is wrong when he says: "And we will zealously protect our Constitution -- indeed, the very rule of law itself -- from those who would force upon us the false choice between security and liberty, between safety and justice..."
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Obama 2001 interview on public station WBEZ-FM in Chicago
"But, the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society. To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn't that radical. It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as it's been interpreted, and the Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can't do to you. Says what the federal government can't do to you, but doesn't say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf."
Posted by: Pete A. | March 28, 2009 11:27 PM
Why are we throwing money and support to a Mexican government who has practiced racicisim for centries and is sufferring the consequences of that practice? If you go there and ask the people off the paved paths (where all the vacationers go) what of their lives there, you will find that all the wealth is concentrated in the hands of the people with the most caucasian, (Spanish, English, German, French) mix in their blood. This is felt by the Indiginous peoples of the country, as it is felt by most of the other countries south of the U.S. Maybe we ought to be giving money to the people of the States and Cities of Mexico to help them to provide jobs to keep them from having to turn to criminal lifestyles or illegal (or legal) immigration.
Posted by: John H. Jackson | March 30, 2009 9:54 AM