Progress Pond

News Flash – Holder to resign

I suppose this will make people on both the Left and the Right happy, though for different reasons: Eric Holder is expected to resign as the Attorney General, effective as soon as his successor is appointed.

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 5 1/2 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 that he otherwise could be locked in to stay for much of the rest of President Obama’s second term.

I will always be disappointed that Holder did not vigorously pursue litigation against the Big Wall Street firms whose fraud led to one of the greatest financial crises in our nation’s history. I would have also liked to have seen prosecution of former Bush officials for their illegal actions regarding the Iraq war, but I never realistically expected that to happen. I always assumed that was too hot a political potato. However, there was broad support, from many on both the right and the left, for investigations and prosecutions of the Banksters, but nothing was ever done beyond a few show piece fines and settlements, and the indictments of a few lesser echelon scapegoats, such as Bernie Madoff. That failure to reign in the financial industry after the economic collapse of 2008-2009 will forever tarnish Holder’s legacy as the first African-American to hold the office of Attorney General.

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