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Saturday, July 11, 2009 12:00 AM

Will Eric Holder do the right thing?

Newsweek says he's leaning toward probing Bush-Cheney torture policies, but lack of public outrage weakens his hand

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  • Saturday, July 11, 2009 02:15 PM

    The lack of public outrage...

    ... falls squarely on the shoulders of the news media. Holder should read between the lines and understand that the same organizations that made so much hay out of 9/11, got so blindly behind unconstitutional legislation like the Patriot Act and accepted the "evidence" for war with Iraq so unquestioningly have almost as much to lose as those directly responsible for the plethora of executive branch crimes we're talking about here. Aside from token mentions, the MSM has not barely discussed the issue enough for the public to notice, much less to be outraged. And as you mention, Joan, much of the discussion that did occur was disgracefully colored with the disingenuous commentary of neo-fascists like Liddy and Rivkin. If Holder wants to really gauge the public feeling over this issue, he will have to do so by taking the issue to the people himself; opening a serious investigation and/or handing out some introductory indictments is probably what it will take to bring this issue above a small blip on the news radar. Or even the release of the remaining torture photos... The attention-deficit of the American public (as fostered by the news/noise machine) means that memos just aren't very exciting; direct visual evidence on the other hand will get people's attention.

    In short, like Obama on many issues, Holder must spend/invest a bit of political capital on this if he's not just going to bury it... Let's hope he's more willing than his boss to take a bold step or two without knowing there's a safety net beneath him. At least he doesn't have to concern himself with the prospect of a 50-state victory and the title of "Coolest Kid In America!!!", goals which are keeping Black Hoover from even wiping his ass without the explicit approval of Rahm, John Brennan and Larry Summers.

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