NPR had the Eric Holder hearing for attorney general on for most of the day, so that's what I listened to. It was an impressive showing, especially compared to the incredibly lame appearances that Alberto Gonzales made when he held the same job. It's a cliche, I know, but it was a showing that helped reinforce the idea that adults really are going to be in charge again.
NPR reporters, and most everybody else, it seemed, thought the most significant thing Holder said was that waterboarding is torture. Hannity, of course, missed that detail. All he heard was that Holder failed to stop the Marc Rich pardon and that he helped pardon terrorists. It isn't so much that Hannity defends torture as that, at least when I listen, he doesn't seem to even know it's an issue.
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I guess we all hear what we want to hear and disregard the rest.
I'm surprised you reacted so positively to Holder -- well, maybe I'm not -- since he told the committee that he backs renewal of the part of the Patriot Act that let FBI agents investigating international terrorism to seek records from businesses, libraries and bookstores.
{www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/17/MNH515C1KK.DTL)
If I remember right, you were quite upset with the Bush administration on this issue last year, and seemed to consider it a firing offense.
Holder, who takes the same position, wins your praise for his "impressive showing" and for reinforcing the idea that now adults will be in charge again.
Anonymous,
I have to admit that I heard no discussion of the Patriot Act. Not too surprising: Not only am I in and out of the car on delivery day, but I also broke for a couple of hours for German class and to catch up at the office. So I could easily have missed it.
At least the article you cite says he hasn't made a "final decision," so let's hope for the best. But it is disappointing, and I hope Congress will do the right thing even if the attorney general doesn't.
I am reassured once more that the adults will be in charge:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/01/obama-sides-wit.html
I had been under the impression during the campaign that the Obama people thought the warrantless eavedropping program was a neocon, fascist program, and had to go.
I guess they are sending the signal that it is an integral part of defending the country from terrorism.
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