Eric Holder tells NY Times he's taking hits for Obama because 'We're both African-American'

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DIVERSITY. The Obama administration is the most diverse White House in U.S. history. Eric Holder is the first black Attorney General. The UN Ambassador, Susan E. Rice, is also an African American, as is EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, NASA chief Charles F. Bolden, Jr., and Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin. Diversity is extending to the federal bench as well, with blacks as 25 percent of the President’s judicial nominees, and minorities as nearly half. For example, Irene Cornelia Berger was confirmed as the first black federal judge in West Virginia. Tanya Pratt became the first African-American appointee to a federal judgeship in Indiana, and Michelle Childs became the second black federal judge in South Carolina. President Obama recently nominated Judge Bernice Bouie Donald, a federal district judge in Tennessee, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Last year, the President nominated Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina and third justice of color to sit on the Supreme Court. Elections do matter.

By Josh Feldman
Mediaite.com

The New York Times has a new profile out today about Attorney General Eric Holder, detailing how he has become a “partisan lightning rod” and frequent target of conservatives over his pursuance of issues like illegal immigration and gay rights.

In the piece, Holder claims that many of his critics are playing “Washington ‘gotcha games,’” viewing him as someone who takes “consistently progressive stands” instead of examining his record and seeing that he takes a more realistic view of law enforcement. The most powerful attacks against Holder have come in the wake of the ATF’s controversial “Fast & Furious” gunrunning scandal. In the interview, Holder admits that he regrets sending a letter to Congress assuring legislators that “agents always tried to interdict illegally purchased guns,” which turned out to be incorrect.

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