Rham Emanuel hasn’t been particularly pleased with Holder. In referencing a New Yorker article by Jane Mayer, the Poitico says:
Privately, White House officials have expressed increasing frustration with Holder since last year, in large part because of his decision to investigate whether past CIA interrogation techniques were illegal. In the New Yorker piece, Mayer writes that Emanuel was frustrated not only that Holder took a backward-looking approach toward the CIA investigations but also try Khaled Sheikh Mohammed in federal court — despite objections from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), an important administration ally on other issues, including the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
One wonders how much sway Emanuel has in the Obama WH as it may be that Holder and the President are ideological soul mates. The war on the previous administration gets top billing.
Jennifer Rubin speculates further:
Interesting that Emanuel and his spinners are now distancing the White House from their attorney general. One wonders where Obama stands in this drama. Isn’t he, after all, the commander in chief? Either the president was content to go along with Holder’s decisions until they went south or he subcontracted, with no oversight, some of the most critical decisions of his presidency to a lawyer who is prone to making the kind of mistakes a “first-year lawyer would get fired for.
Either way, Obama now must suffer the results of Holder’s ill-advised decisions. There will be much speculation, given Emanuel’s comments, as to whether the White House is getting ready to throw Holder under that proverbial bus. Now, as the Democrats join the Republicans to block the KSM trial and to deny funds for moving detainees to Illinois, it would be as good a time as any.
Removing an AG is messy, messy business. The politcal canyon that Hoder has dug for the president and their party is immense and growing like a Florida sink hole.
Does it matter to Obama?
Likely, no. He had no better opportunity than he did during his SOTU address ten days ago. A dramatic change in terrorist policy would have won himself considerable political capital that he could have used on his own domestic agenda. But the President choser not to. It would discredit his most frequently used segue, “the failed policies of the last eight years, ” something that is clearly ingrained in his psyche.
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This post was written by bobsikes on February 6, 2010
