Ugly and Divisive

Another member of Barack Obama's list of 2s (read the first paragraph) has decided that offense (both meanings of the word) is far better than defense. ABC News reports:

A fed-up Attorney General Eric Holder is accusing congressional critics of launching “unprecedented, unwarranted, ugly and divisive” attacks on him and the Obama administration.

During a speech to the National Action Network, a group founded by Rev. Al Sharpton [an individual who has a VERY shady past], in New York on Wednesday lauding the organization’s effort to advance racial equality, a heated Holder went a little off-script.

“Forget about me [specifically]. Look at the way the attorney general of the United States was treated yesterday by a House committee,” Holder told the crowd. “What attorney general has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment? What president has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment?”

Since Mr. Holder is looking back at other Attorneys General, what other Attorney General has stonewalled (for almost 4 years) a gun-running scandal that originated under his command at DoJ? What other Attorney General has refused to turn over emails and other pertinent information about that scandal and has been held in contempt of Congress as a result? What other Attorney General has dragged his heels investigating the weaponization of a government agency (the IRS), spending almost one year doing absolutely nothing? What other Attorney General has leaked that he intends to disregard any criminal complain against Lois Lerner, an IRS executive who clearly broke the law by targeting American citizens for political purposes? What other Attorney General brought felony campaign finance charges against a movie maker (Dinesh DeSousa) who made a critically acclaimed film that probed Barack Obama and his beliefs? What other attorney general has fought to oppose every attempt to validate voters throughout the country, thereby aiding and abetting voter fraud?And that's the short list.

Eric Holder, like virtually everyone else on Obama's list of 2s, is hyperpartisan. Like everyone else in the Obama administration, he feels that he can denigrate his critics, demonize the president's opponents, play fast and loose with the facts and the truth, and then whine when his critics and opponents begin to play hardball.

What truly is "ugly and divisive" is an administration that is increasingly lawless, that has lied repeated to the American public on everything from Benghazi to Obamacare, from Fast and Furious to the IRS, that has a senior IRS executive that has refused to testify before congress, that is quick to blame the opposition party for its own failures and poor decisions, that attacks media outlets that disagree with it and reporters who try to ferret out the truth, that brings legal action not against leakers, but in an unprecedented move, again reporters who publish the leaks, that by even The New York Times admission, is the least transparent in modern times.

All of that is "ugly and divisive."

UPDATE (4/13/2014):
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John Fund and Hans Von Spakovsky comment further:

A veteran Justice Department lawyer says that Attorney General Eric Holder has politicized the department in a way he hadn’t seen before. In short, “Holder is the worst person to hold the position of attorney general since the disgraced John Mitchell.”

Now in his sixth year as attorney general, Holder has increasingly tilted the department in an ideological direction. It’s one thing to emphasize President Obama’s legal priorities. It’s quite another to decide not to enforce certain federal laws — such as the ban on marijuana — or urge state attorney generals to refuse to defend local laws on same-sex marriage. Legal changes are achieved through legislation, not through a sudden whim not to enforce them. No other attorney general has acted in this manner.

Holder clearly believes he has the inherent power to politicize his department. When House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte asked him last week whether he believed there were any limits to the administration’s prosecutorial discretion. “There is a vast amount of discretion that a president has — and more specifically that an attorney general has,” Holder responded.

But courts have frequently disagreed with Holder’s interpretations of the law.

The clear implication from Holder is that he and the president are being treated harshly because they are African American—a not-so-subtle charge of racism. George Will responds:

Look, liberalism has a kind of Tourette's Syndrome these days. It’s just constantly saying the word racism and racist. It’s an old saying in the law; if you have the law on your side, argue the law. If you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. If you have neither, pound the table. This is pounding the table. There’s a kind of intellectual poverty now. Liberalism hasn't had a new idea since the 1960s except ObamaCare and the country doesn't like it. Foreign policy is a shambles from Russia to Iran to Syria to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And the recovery is unprecedentedly bad. So what do you do? You say anyone criticizes us is a racist.

As 2016 approaches the Tourette's syndrome will remain, but the word "racism" will be replaced by the phrase "war on women." Criticize any progressive female politician of substantive issues or question her accomplishments or experience, and I can just about you'll be labeled a misogynist.