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Much respect and warm feelings toward attorney general nominee Merrick Garland, but I also enjoyed what looked to me like subtweeting skill in the written version of his opening statement for today's confirmation hearing:
From Merrick Garland statement https://t.co/ohDLfE38m1:
— Screechy Ill-Speak (@Yastreblyansky) February 21, 2021
"strictly regulate communications with the White House"
That's aimed at criminal AGs Sessions and Barr and it's very welcome pic.twitter.com/cRPqoXI3ck
Ted Cruz may have thought so too, because in his "questioning" at the hearing he brought in what you might call an argument by Preemptive Whatabout, where you don't wait for your opponent to give you a name before you respond with your whatabout, but rather trot it out in advance—in this case forestalling the Barr with a dig at Obama's first attorney general, Eric Holder.
We don't all love Holder a hundred percent, I realize. I personally think it's a divided legacy, with very good work in the civil rights area (including, I'll say this to the end, in his handling of the 2014-15 unaccompanied minor migrant crisis, "cages" and all, as comes clear when you compare it with Sessions and his crimes against humanity in 2017) and his very inadequate response to the crimes committed by bankers and insurers in the 2007-08 financial crisis. And I'm fond of the idea of Holder as Obama's anti-racism translator, if you know what I mean, expressing thoughts Obama didn't feel he could afford to express for himself.
But Cruz's remarks pushed me into one of those rants:
It would be so nice if anybody had ever thought to ask Holder what he meant by that. Chris Hayes came close in an interview in 2020: What does Barr do that you, as "wing man", wouldn't have done? https://t.co/L70phxq23R https://t.co/26c9wrKFyn
— Screechy Ill-Speak (@Yastreblyansky) February 22, 2021
What did Holder do to serve as a wingman for Obama? In the one scandal or pseudoscandal, the Fast and Furious affair of 2010 and 2011, he was defending himself for not knowing about it. The main thing seems to be saying things Obama felt unable to say about race.
— Screechy Ill-Speak (@Yastreblyansky) February 22, 2021
Nothing like the crimes-- conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury--John Mitchell committed on Nixon's behalf, which got him 19 months in federal prison (something like that might be appropriate for Barr).
— Screechy Ill-Speak (@Yastreblyansky) February 22, 2021
Or the (again Barr-like) politicization of the office during Alberto Gonzales's two-and-a-half-year tenure as W Bush's AG, which seems to have been legal but clearly unethical https://t.co/zUs3HmgyJb
— Screechy Ill-Speak (@Yastreblyansky) February 22, 2021
...but they can't tell you what crimes they believe he was confessing to--I think pretty clearly because there aren't any. That's really contemptible bullshit. @SenTedCruz you want to correct me? What crimes do you think Holder committed as "wing man"?
— Screechy Ill-Speak (@Yastreblyansky) February 22, 2021
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