After Eric Holder's statements yesterday at his hearing and the GOP offering no more than token resistance, the incoming AG is making a lot of Bushies nervous as a nitro delivery guy in a trampoline factory.
President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general said unequivocally Thursday that waterboarding is torture, and he vowed to initiate an extensive and immediate "damage assessment" to fix fundamental problems within the Justice Department that he said were caused by the Bush administration.And while I absolutely applaud Holder's statements, I'm more convinced than ever that the pressure on Bush to issue blanket pardons some time in the next couple of days is going to be immense. He will be convinced there's enough risk of investigation and prosecution by Holder that he has to do it now. Bush really, really wants America to like him and to remember him fondly, but the fact that an overwhelming majority of Americans are glad as hell to see him go only means he has much less to lose if he does it.
Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee during a marathon hearing that the incoming Obama administration is making major course corrections on the interrogations of terror suspects and many other issues that will represent a significant break from the current policies and programs.
Early on he was asked whether waterboarding, a technique that makes a prisoner believe he is in danger of drowning, constitutes torture and is illegal.
"If you look at the history of the use of that technique, " Holder replied, "we prosecuted our own soldiers for using it in Vietnam. ... Waterboarding is torture."
I'd put it at 80% he does it. It would be higher, except it's a tacit admission of a mistake, which Bush has always been loathe to do. Still...a last-second pardon like this would explain why Holder's getting a free pass.
We'll know very soon.
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