Obama is a "Process Liberal" -- Why He MUST ask Holder to Resign (Michael Tomasky) [View all]

[KoKo]

Obama Should Ask Holder to Resign
by Michael Tomasky May 14, 2013 9:13 AM EDT

Barack Obama is a process liberal. A law and social-science liberal (much more, it has always seemed, than an economics liberal). If he’d never gone into politics, he’d be a law professor, as he was; and, I’m guessing, after a certain number of years, chairman of the board of a major Chicago foundation. And if the CEO of the foundation in question did something wrong and needed to be relieved of his post, Obama would let the process play out, even if it took two years, which, in foundation-world, is about how long these things take.

So now we have this situation involving the Justice Department and the Associated Press, news of which broke last night. DoJ, after presumably subpoenaing phone companies, obtained logs of outgoing calls (numbers called only—there was no wiretapping) made by some AP reporters and editors involved in producing a story that appeared in May 2012 about how a plot by a Yemeni terrorist to bomb an airliner was foiled.AP actually held the story for a few days at the time at the administration’s request, and then published only when it got the green light. But even so, the administration wanted to know who AP’s source was. And so the subpoena—extremely far-reaching as these things go, and possibly sought in violation of the guidelines governing such action.

Well, this is a big deal. This one isn’t ginned up by Republicans. Oh, they’re bound to start in on it today. They’re total hypocrites as usual. First, they’ve wanted Obama to be tougher on leakers, not more lax. And second, if this had been George W. Bush’s Justice Department, by and large I’d imagine most conservative would be saying, “Good! To hell with those sissies at AP. This is national security.”

But their hypocrisy isn’t the main story here. On this one, the administration’s is. For a journalist, I’m not a very good First Amendment absolutist. As the guy who wrote just a week ago that there are no absolute rights (I was writing about the Second Amendment), I realize it would be dodgy of me to carve out an exemption for the First just because I’m a journalist and such an exemption might benefit me. So I recognize that there are times when journalists might have to reveal sources—when a person’s life is at stake, say, and others. And remember, the Supreme Court has never recognized a journalist’s right to protect source confidentiality. But even with all that, it’s pretty clear that Obama has been waging a secret war and then pursuing journalists trying to dig into it with more zeal than even the Bush administration did. And it’s an extra irony that Mr. Process Liberal is presiding over all this.

So what’s he going to do now? I think we can predict. He’s going to stand by Eric Holder for now and let some interminable process play out. Just like he’s going to let some lengthy process play out at the IRS.

MORE of this read which is an important caution about "Drip, Drip, Drip" at:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/14/obama-should-ask-holder-to-resign.html