Surrounded by Liberals

Dusty
“There is a set of recurring patterns on the Republican side trying to grind him into the dust, so we’re a bit dubious of their complaints,” said Representative Peter Welch of Vermont. (NYT, 6/1/2013)

Vermont's Welch speaking about AG Eric Holder. Those "patterns" Welch references being explained in the previous paragraph as the following:

Under his leadership, the department scaled back a voter-intimidation lawsuit from the Bush era involving the New Black Panther Party, a decision that conservatives used to portray the black-nationalist fringe group as a political ally of the Obama administration. He reopened criminal investigations into the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogations of terrorism suspects and tried to prosecute five men accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks in civilian courts rather than military tribunals, which provoked accusations that he was soft on terrorism. And he abandoned the legal defense of a law barring federal recognition of same-sex marriage that social conservatives viewed as a bulwark against attacks on the traditional family. The party-line furor peaked with hearings into Operation Fast and Furious, a botched gun-trafficking investigation by federal agents based in Arizona. When Mr. Holder, after Mr. Obama invoked executive privilege, refused to provide department e-mails relating to the fallout after the operation ended, the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress.

These are the dubious Republican patterns that give Welch pause.... Does he see nothing here worthy of further discussion?

Meanwhile this is what Holder still wants to accomplish:

“Too many people go to too many prisons for far too long for no good law enforcement reason,” he said in a speech in April.

Those dubious Republicans will say that the AG is wants to be kinder and gentler....to criminals.


Large and Small
And the other part of this is that liberals measure success in their sort of compassion ratings by the number of people on food stamps, welfare. The larger the number, the more compassionate you are, whereas a conservative says the smaller the number, the more successful the society. (Dailycaller.com, 5/30/2013)

This is Charles Krauthammer capturing - as only he can - the essence of Liberals and Conservatives. What's that word?  Oh, right...irrefutable.


Rub Down
Okay. Let’s accept the dubious proposition that the Yemeni prisoners could be sent home without coming back to fight us. And that others could be convicted in court and put in U.S. prisons.

Now the rub. Obama openly admits that “even after we take these steps, one issue will remain — just how to deal with those Gitmo detainees who we know have participated in dangerous plots or attacks but who cannot be prosecuted.”

Well, yes. That’s always been the problem with Gitmo. It’s not a question of geography. The issue is indefinite detention — whether at Gitmo, a Colorado supermax or St. Helena.

Can’t try ’em, can’t release ’em. Having posed the central question, what is Obama’s answer? “I am confident that this legacy problem can be resolved.”

That’s it! I kid you not. He’s had four-plus years to think this one through — and he openly admits he’s got no answer. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 5/30/2013)

Lucky readers get a double dose of Krauthammer today. Much has been written about Obama's recent address on national security. A speech so bizarre that even POLITICO made a joke about it (Obama Debates Obama). Charles weighs in with his own funny line, but he was likely more incredulous than amused.