Attorney General Eric Holder was in a familiar spot yesterday: testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, dodging and weaving and otherwise doing his best imitation of Sgt. Schultz from the old TV show “Hogan’s Heroes”: I know nothing.
Scandals at the IRS? Under investigation, can’t comment. Subpoenaed phone records of Associated Press reporters? How should I know? I recused myself.
That’s not testifying — that’s obfuscating.
But it’s all in a day’s work for the Obama administration’s most visible punching bag. If the president is made of Teflon, Holder is his opposite number: Everything sticks to him.
From the Fast and Furious scandal, in which federal officials let hundreds of high-powered weapons “walk” into Mexico — where they’ve turned up at multiple crime scenes — to the latest embarrassments, Holder has become the face of the administration’s increasingly blatant corruption, incompetence or both.
Yet the man who first besmirched his reputation by advocating for Bill Clinton’s presidential pardon of the fugitive financier Marc Rich remains in public office, taking the hits so his boss can maintain his plausible deniability. (Does anyone really believe that Obama first learned of the IRS scandal from reading “news reports” last Friday?)
Indeed, last year Holder’s habitual intransigence got him cited for contempt of Congress in the still-unresolved Fast and Furious fiasco, which has cost both US and Mexican lives.
A couple of fresh scandals, however, may finally be too much for even him to survive:
* Investigating leaks to the media about a CIA operation in the Middle East, Justice broke normal protocol by secretly seizing two months’ worth of phone records at the AP without prior notification, citing pressing security concerns.
The leaks last year concerned a foiled terror plot involving a possible underwear bomber affiliated with al Qaeda in Yemen; the joint Saudi-British operation that did the foiling was prematurely blown by loose lips in Washington.
But the prime suspect in that leak ought to have been the man who publicly crowed about the intelligence coup — current CIA chief John Brennan, who was Obama’s counterterrorism adviser at the time.
Holder, by the way, recused himself from the investigation “early on” — because he’s been interviewed by the FBI in connection with the leaks. How reassuring.
* After years of complaints from conservative groups about IRS mistreatment, the agency finally ’fessed up that, yes, it had subjected right-leaning individuals and organizations to “inappropriate” criteria, targeting Tea Party and Jewish groups and even Billy Graham’s ministry. Among the red flags: teaching about the Constitution.
And Holder says he’s launching a criminal investigation that will take a politically “dispassionate” view, and that anybody who broke the law will be “held accountable.”
But nothing in his past inspires confidence; if F&F is any indication, he’s more likely to slow-walk documents, make witnesses unavailable and otherwise hinder Congress in its pursuit of its oversight duties.
Yet if there’s any agency that needs overseeing, especially with a vast increase in its power coming up thanks to ObamaCare, it’s the IRS.
At yesterday’s hearing, Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) summed up the frustration many in Congress feel with Holder when he noted that “nobody’s ever held accountable at the top” with this administration. Oh, a few lower-downs got thrown to the wolves over F&F and Benghazi, but no heads have rolled in the corridors of power.
If the Obama administration is serious about restoring public trust, Eric Holder’s head would be a good start.