Attorney General Eric Holder will announce resignation

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**Jihadin**

Also easier to replace him that Obama and Dem's approve of with the 50 vote option Reid and Senate Democrats approved before possible turn over of Senate to Republicans. Think it was called the "Nuke Option" awhile back.

**Ouze**

I don't think there needs to be some kind of behind the scenes, smoking gun to prompt him to resign. Certainly not the idea of a SCOTUS nomination, which of course would never, ever get confirmed.

A.) He's a super popular target for the right wing, for reasons both fair and unfair
B.) He's been doing this for 6 years, so he's probably pretty damn tired of doing it on a personal level (look how long most AG's serve)
C.) President Obama will be able to pick someone else before a possible Republican senate grab and then confirmation shenanigans

That being said, he has had at least some good initiatives. I think my preferred one was to be the first AG I am aware of to declare a problem, and then act on, and act on reducing the US prison population. It was a small step, but in my opinion a step in the right direction, and a politically dangerous one. I think we jail way, way too many people and often for too stupid of reasons.

**Relapse**

d-usa wrote:
Politics in a nutshell:

"Holder should resign, we know he is incompetent!!!"
*Holder resigns"
"Why the hell is he resigning, what don't we know!!!"

Who here, that claimed he was incompetent, etc., doesn't have an idea why he's resigning? The only question is which item from his tenure as atoorney general is catching up to him.

**Jihadin**

Relapse wrote:
d-usa wrote:
Politics in a nutshell:

"Holder should resign, we know he is incompetent!!!"
*Holder resigns"
"Why the hell is he resigning, what don't we know!!!"

Who here, that claimed he was incompetent, etc., doesn't have an idea why he's resigning? The only question is which item from his tenure as atoorney general is catching up to him.

That can be anything

**Hordini**

Ouze wrote:
I think we jail way, way too many people and often for too stupid of reasons.

I don't think anyone can reasonably contest that when you take into account the fact that we have more prisoners than countries like Russia and China, even when you include political prisoners. When you consider that China has a billion more people than we do, it starts to look horrendous.

**whembly**

Yeah... remember that one time a FoxNews Host help select GWB's AG?

Me neither...

**Ouze**

Al Sharpton has not historically been a paragon of truthfulness.

To wit:

Update (3:17 p.m.): Sharpton sent a statement to Business Insider clarifying that he is not involved in the "decision making."

many edits: no, definitely not a h in "wit" in that usage.

**d-usa**

Ouze wrote:
Al Sharpton has not historically been a paragon of truthfulness.

To whit:

Update (3:17 p.m.): Sharpton sent a statement to Business Insider clarifying that he is not involved in the "decision making."

And here I thought he made it all the way from "please stay away from me" during the campaign to "tell me who I should pick for my cabinet".

**whembly**

Ouze wrote:
Al Sharpton has not historically been a paragon of truthfulness.

To wit:

Update (3:17 p.m.): Sharpton sent a statement to Business Insider clarifying that he is not involved in the "decision making."

many edits: no, definitely not a h in "wit" in that usage.

How did that start then?

Really though... can the next AG be any worse?

Possibly:

Spoiler:

**d-usa**

My guess is that it started because Sharpton has a highly inflated sense of ego and a higher opinion of his importance than anyone else. He probably send an email to Obama saying "what about this guy" and then spun that into "we are negotiating about the next AG" when blowing his own horn to the media while strutting around with his "look at me I'm important" boner showing.

That's just my opinion of course. The man is a fraud who will not back away from any opportunity to promote himself.

**Jihadin**

Preet a possible mention

**Ouze**

Jihadin wrote:
Preet a possible mention

The other one I've seen mentioned was Janet Napalitano, but Preet looks like a more likely bet to me.

**whembly**

Ouze wrote:
Jihadin wrote:
Preet a possible mention

The other one I've seen mentioned was Janet Napalitano, but Preet looks like a more likely bet to me.

Hmmm... interesting...

I thought I heard Patrik Deval was being considered.

*shrug*

**Jihadin**

On May 15, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Preet Bharara to become the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Bharara’s nomination was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 7, 2009, and he was sworn in on August 13, 2009.
As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Bharara oversees the investigation and litigation of all criminal and civil cases brought on behalf of the United States in the Southern District of New York, which encompasses New York, Bronx, Westchester, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Sullivan counties. He supervises an office of more than 220 Assistant U.S. Attorneys, who handle a high volume of cases that include domestic and international terrorism, narcotics and arms trafficking, white collar crime, public corruption, gang violence, organized crime, and civil rights violations.
As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Bharara has applied renewed focus on large-scale, sophisticated financial frauds by creating two new units – the Complex Frauds Unit and the complementary Civil Frauds Unit. The Civil Frauds Unit has collected close to $500 million in settlements since its inception, including multi-million dollar settlements with Deutsche Bank and CitiMortgage for faulty lending practices and other fraudulent conduct.
In addition to prosecuting financial fraud, the Complex Frauds Unit is tasked with addressing the threat of cybercrime and has prosecuted core members of the computer hacking groups, LulzSec and Anonymous. Together with the FBI, the office also recently announced the largest international takedown of defendants allegedly engaged in the theft of personal identification information and other crimes over the Internet.
Recognizing the growing nexus between international narcotics trafficking and terrorism, Mr. Bharara merged two previously independent units to form the Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit. The Unit works closely with partner agencies and international law enforcement, and is responsible for prosecuting leaders and associates of organizations that engage in transnational acts of terrorism, narco-terrorism, narcotics trafficking, and money laundering.
Under Mr. Bharara’s supervision, the office continues to combat corruption in city and state government. The office remains at the forefront of prosecuting corruption in Albany and at the local level, bringing charges and securing convictions against multiple elected officials and other corrupt public servants. The office also has prosecuted more than 500 members and associates of various gangs operating in the Bronx, Newburgh, Yonkers and other areas in an effort to make communities in the Southern District safer for residents.
Since Mr. Bharara’s appointment as U.S. Attorney, the office successfully extradited and prosecuted one of the most notorious arms traffickers in the world, Viktor Bout, who is now serving a 25-year sentence. The office also obtained a life sentence for Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square bomber, and for one of the Al Qaeda plotters of the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in East Africa. In addition, the office has convicted scores of insider trading defendants, including Raj Rajaratnam, who was sentenced to 11 years, and Rajat Gupta.
The office recently secured the guilty plea of Peter Madoff for his role in his brother Bernard’s Ponzi scheme that included an agreement to a 10-year sentence, the statutory maximum. Together with the Madoff trustee, the office also achieved the largest forfeiture in U.S. history – $7.2 billion from the estate of Jeffrey Picower.
Mr. Bharara recently concluded a two-year term as a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee and as Chair of its Subcommittee on White Collar Fraud. He is Co-Chair of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Working Group of the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.
Prior to becoming the U.S. Attorney, Mr. Bharara served as Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. During his tenure, he helped to lead the Senate Judiciary Committee investigation of the firing of United States Attorneys.
From 2000 to 2005, Mr. Bharara served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted a wide range of cases involving organized crime, racketeering, securities fraud, money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and other crimes.
Mr. Bharara was a litigation associate in New York at Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman from 1996 to 2000 and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher from 1993 to 1996. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with an A.B. in Government in 1990, and from Columbia Law School with a J.D. in 1993, where he was a member of the Columbia Law Review.

Looks good on paper and that 110% confirmation from the Senate helps a lot.

**daedalus**

Jihadin wrote:

Looks good on paper and that 110% confirmation from the Senate helps a lot.

110%? Did they accidentally overvote?

**Co'tor Shas**

It's the voter fraud thy go on about!

**d-usa**

Just nominate Bill Clinton and watch the drama!

**LordofHats**

d-usa wrote:
Just nominate Bill Clinton and watch the drama!

Why not? Politics are already on par with reality tv

**whembly**

d-usa wrote:
Just nominate Bill Clinton and watch the drama!

Does he have his law license back?

**d-usa**

whembly wrote:
d-usa wrote:
Just nominate Bill Clinton and watch the drama!

Does he have his law license back?

Is that actually a requirement?

The Solicitor General represents the US before the SCOTUS, so I'm not even sure.

**Eilif**

As for Holder himself, I've not been wowed, but I think he was a much better AG than folks give him credit for.

Not defending DOMA was not a big deal. The executive branch at all levels has way more issues it can take on than $, staff and time to do so. They make decisions every day about which cases and issues to defend, prosecute, etc. DOMA was already in the process of being weakened by the various judicial rulings and is on the way out. I'd much rather have the AG's resources focused somewhere other than a law that has no future.

The right is pissed that he took up so many cases that they weren't happy about, and ignored some that they wanted taken up. but it's a huge improvement from the Bush years when Civil Rights cases were almost entirely ignored.

The quote I heard on the news this week summed it something like this
'Holder is praised by Civil Rights groups and disliked by the Republicans.'
Sounds like a ringing endorsement to me.

Frazzled wrote:
How about mere illegal arm sales then? Plus the fact one of the motivatiosn was clearly to subvert the 2nd Amendment by arguing firearms were being sold from the US to Mexico, and we needed laws. Once F and F came out, that all mysteriously died away.

That's a deliberate misinterpretation of F&F. The operation ended up being a feth-up, but US guns getting into the hands of Mexican drug cartels in VAST numbers was well-established fact long before F&F.

F&F was an attempt to trace the trafficking of weapons. It went bad, but it had a very good purpose and goal. There's no proof that it was an effort to subvert the 2nd amendment, except for the rhetoric of folks who want to view it as such. I'm a strong proponent of gun ownership (though I do endorse some things that make me unfit for an NRA endorsement) but trying to stem the flow of guns to the cartels is something I'm very much in favor of.

**Dreadclaw69**

d-usa wrote:
Remember guys, republicans are now claiming that people don't kill people but that guns kill people.

I must have missed that. Do you have a quote or source to substantiate that?

**Jihadin**

Dreadclaw69 wrote:
d-usa wrote:
Remember guys, republicans are now claiming that people don't kill people but that guns kill people.

I must have missed that. Do you have a quote or source to substantiate that?

Look who your asking

**Dreadclaw69**

Hopefully the next AG will not be held in contempt, and will have respect for the Constitutional rights of Americans and not talk about the need to "brainwash" people.

**Hordini**

Dreadclaw69 wrote:
and will have respect for the Constitutional rights of Americans and not talk about the need to "brainwash" people.]

That video is pretty messed up.