Who's ya daddy?

I like President Obama. But I'm proud of Attorney General Eric Holder.

By all accounts, there was much strum and drang at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue about releasing those CYA torture memos that were written by the OLC, with Obama's national security "team" arguing against (because it will be embarrassing) and Holder arguing for (because torture is, well, illegal). The AG prevailed in that argument.

Then, with the release of the memos, President Obama is persuaded that no one should be prosecuted -- that there are those who are, in fact, above the law. Tea readers like me hoped that the President meant that he didn't want to prosecute those who were "just following orders" -- an indefensible defense not deserving of a free pass, frankly -- but was open to going after the authors of the policy. But, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel appearance on ABC's This Week with Stephy and Press Sec'y Robert Gibbs briefing on Monday closed that door: there would be no prosecutions of anyone, anywhere, any how at any time, so says the President.

Holder? "Mmmmkay... not your call, bruh." DoJ lets slip that, no, in fact, the AG is "seriously considering" prosecutions... and focuses Washington on this little Constitutional fact: While Barack Obama may be the Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief during wartime, Eric Holder is the chief law enforcement officer in the country. Chief. Ultimate. Independent.

And so, Holder informs Barack: "Yeah, you might be ultimately running things over at Hillary's State Department, but'cha ain't running shit over in this camp -- fo' real -- so ya best slow ya roll, bruh." And Barack is back on your TV by yesterday afternoon telling us all that the final decision regarding prosecutions haven't been made, that the final decision is the Justice Department's to make anyway, that he really, really wishes that we could just get along, and that when he said he wanted a "team of rivals" to surround him, he didn't expect that one of his team would make a rival of him. (OK, he didn't say that last part, but you know he was thinking it.)

When Eric Holder was going through his confirmation, there was much pearl-wringing because Holder signed-off on Bill Clinton's pardon of Clinton crony Marc Rich on the last day of that President's administration, with Republican critics claiming that the pardon was in fact purchased by Rich and his wife. Holder has since said that his signing-off on the pardon was a "mistake." "I wish I had done some things differently with regard to the Marc Rich matter. Specifically, I wish that I had ensured that the Department of Justice was more fully informed and involved in this pardon process."

Eric Holder doesn't intend to allow the DoJ to become (remain?) a political arm of the White House, as it was under the previous president. It all gives me the warm-and-fuzzies.