It was a bad week for the Obama administration in general and Attorney General Eric Holder in particular.
President Obama scolded BP and it’s subcontractors for their handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and for playing the blame game as they continue to point fingers at each other for not being able to contain the massive spill. Then the president went on to scold the federal government for its roll, in essence scolding himself.
It seems ironic that Obama would scold some his biggest contributors and then himself, but we should be glad the president finally took at least some responsibility for something. It was refreshing to learn that something wasn’t George W. Bush’s fault for a change. However, the fact remains that the spill continues and neither the oil industry, nor the federal government seems to know how to cap the gusher, which is some 5,000 feet beneath the surface of the Gulf and apparently beyond their reach, both figuratively and literally.
The president continued to castigate Arizona for passing its new Illegal Immigration law, though he still hasn’t read the 16-page document. If he had taken time to read it, he might have realized that he has been misrepresenting what the law, which mirrors existing federal law, actually says and does.
Obama also continued his do as I say, not as I do modus operandi when he went to New York City and ordered chicken wings, fries and onion rings -followed no doubt by a Marlboro- even as he, the Congress and the First Lady move to enact nanny state legislation that will require the states to mandate that healthcare providers monitor the Body Mass Index, or BMI, of children ages 2 to 18, all in the name of stemming childhood obesity. This is an admirable goal, but as usual Democrats think that the government, not parents should be responsible. And as usual they want taxpayers to foot the bill.
But the member of the Obama administration with the most egg on his face this week has to be Attorney General Eric Holder. Holder when asked by Representative Lamar Smith of Texas whether some of those that have perpetrated acts of terrorism against the United States, “might have been incited to take the actions that they did because of radical Islam,” was unable to give a yes or no answer. Instead he said, “No, no I don’t want to say anything negative about a religion… that’s not consistent with the teachings of it” and “I certainly think that it’s possible that people who espouse a radical version of Islam have had an ability to have an impact on people like Mr. Shahzad.”
Really Mr. Holder? It’s not consistent with the teachings of a religion that calls upon it’s followers to “kill the infidels” and “bring Jihad” to unbelievers? And when those that attack us get their training from radical Islamic terror groups and yell “Allah akbar”, you can’t even bring yourself to admit that they “might have been incited” by radial Islam? Incompetent doesn’t even begin to cover holding that position, but we’ll leave it at that for now.
If the attorney general didn’t look incompetent after that exchange, his admonition to Representative Ted Poe of Texas that he had “glanced at” the Arizona Illegal Immigration law, SB 1070, but hadn’t had the chance to read it should seal the deal. Holder went on the Sunday morning talk shows on May 9th and consistently said that he and the administration were concerned about the possibility of law leading to racial profiling, as well as its constitutionality and went on to say that he and the administration might even challenge the law in court.
The realization that, as many had suspected, the attorney general hadn’t read the 16-page law is reason enough for many to wonder how he still has his job. Certainly this should lead even the most ardent supporter to question the competence of the attorney general or, at the very least, shake their confidence in him.
