Eric Holder Resigning--Why Now?

Numerous news outlets are reporting that Attorney General Eric Holder is resigning his position. The reports read virtually the same, with this Boston Globe report being typical:

Eric Holder, who served as the public face of the Obama administration’s legal fight against terrorism and pushed to make the criminal justice system more even-handed, is resigning after six years on the job. He is the nation’s first African-American attorney general. 

The White House said that President Barack Obama planned to announce Holder’s departure at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. The White House said Holder plans to remain at the Justice Department until his successor is in place.

 The 63-year-old former judge and prosecutor took office in early 2009 as the U.S. government grappled with the worst financial crisis in decades and with divisive questions on the handling of captured terrorism suspects, issues that helped shape his six-year tenure as the country’s top law enforcement official. He is the fourth-longest serving attorney general in U.S. history. 

He also weighed in on matters of racial fairness, taking steps to improve police relations with minorities, enforce civil rights laws and remove racial disparities in sentencing. Most recently he became the Obama administration’s face in the federal response to the police shooting last month of an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri. In the shooting’s aftermath, he enlisted a team of criminal justice researchers to study racial bias in law enforcement. 

In his first few years on the job, Holder endured a succession of firestorms over, among other things, an ultimately-abandoned plan to try terrorism suspects in New York City, a botched gun-running probe along the Southwest border that prompted Republican calls for his resignation, and what was seen as failure to hold banks accountable for the economic meltdown. 

But he stayed on after President Barack Obama won re-election, turning in his final stretch to issues that he said were personally important to him. He promoted voting rights and legal benefits for same-sex couples and pushed for changes to a criminal justice system that he said meted out punishment disproportionately to minorities.

 The story goes on to ignore Holder's scandals and to point out what a good communist he has been (I'm summarizing in my own words, obviously).

Well, let's remember how Holder has abused his position and authority (at least that we know about). In June 2013, Red State listed 16 objectionable things:

(1)  Discriminatory hiring at the Justice Department;

(2)  Labeling the Ft. Hood shooting as "workplace violence";

(3)  Spying on reporters and editors of the Associated Press (AP);

(4)  Spying on Fox News reporter James Rosen, and falsely accusing him of being part of a criminal conspiracy;

(5)  Playing a key role in the pardon of Marc Rich (one of many examples of how the Democrats favor the very wealthy);

(6)  Pardons of key members of the Weather Underground, a communist based terrorist group;

(7)  Threatening prosecution under "hate crimes" speech critical of Islam;

(8)  Public comments showing an animosity toward conservatives;

(9)  Public opposition to the 2nd Amendment;

(10)  Treatment of foreign terrorists as criminal defendants;

(11)  Suing individual states for attempting to enforce federal immigration laws;

(12)  Refusing to do anything about Black Panther intimidation of voters;

(13)  Opposition to voter ID laws;

(14)  "Fast and Furious" and other similar programs intended to use straw buyers to move firearms into the hands of criminal drug cartels and gangs, resulting in the murder of Border Agents and other innocent people;

(15)  Purging DOJ training materials of the term "radical Islam"; and,

(16)  Islamic outreach.

Of course, we would be remiss if we didn't mention that the FBI blocked a corruption probe involving Sens. Reid, Lee. We also can't forget that the DOJ has refused to investigate or prosecute anyone at the IRS for its targeting of conservative political organizations, and Holder's perjuring himself before Congress. (See also here). Oh, yes--the DOJ pressuring banks and other financial institutions to reject business from unacceptable businesses, such as those selling firearms or ammo. And Holder's refusal to investigate the VA scandal involving the deaths of veterans.

(Here is another list of scandals, including a few I missed, from Nonsensible Shoes.

It should be noted that the caveat to all of this is that Holder will keep his position until a replacement is named, which we have been warned could be up to a year out.

I am more interested in the timing of this all. Several of the stories, including this New York Times report, indicate that the decision was finalized over the Labor Day weekend. What could have prompted Holder's decision? Well, one reason might have been a victory against the DOJ in the Fast and Furious investigation. The Blaze reported on August 20, 2014:

A federal judge resurrected the dormant Fast and Furious scandal by ordering the Justice Department to provide additional documents to House investigators probing the botched gun walking program. 

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that the DOJ must turn over a privilege log of Operation Fast and Furious documents to the House by Oct. 1. 

The privileged logs were among the thousands of pages of documents the Justice Department withheld from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee during its investigation that has been going on since 2011.