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The Public Policy
Holder’s Chutzpah
The man is not stupid, despite his other failings.
Attorney General Eric Holder recently told a group of black clergymen that the right to vote was being threatened by people who are seeking to block access to the ballot box by blacks and other minorities.
This is truly world-class chutzpah, by an Attorney General who stopped attorneys in his own Department of Justice from completing the prosecution of black thugs who stationed themselves outside a Philadelphia voting site to harass and intimidate white voters.
This may have seemed like a small episode to some at the time, but it was only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The U.S. Attorney who was prosecuting that case — J. Christian Adams — resigned from the Department of Justice in protest, and wrote a book about a whole array of similar race-based decisions on voting rights by Eric Holder and his subordinates at the Department of Justice.
The book is titled Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department. It names names, dates and places around the country where the Department of Justice stopped its own attorneys from pursuing cases of voter fraud and intimidation, when it was blacks who were accused of these crimes.
If Mr. Adams is lying, he has taken a huge risk in citing individuals by name and quoting them directly. Yet, despite the fact that most of those he accuses are lawyers, apparently no one has sued him. Moreover, Adams has also testified under oath before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, on the racial double standard at the Department of Justice, when it comes to voting rights.What Attorney General Holder has been complaining loudly about, and launching federal lawsuits about, are states that require photo identification to vote. Holder calls this blocking minority “access” to the voting booths.
Since millions of black Americans — like millions of white Americans — are confronted with demands for photo identification at airports, banks and innumerable other institutions, it is a little much to claim that requiring the same thing to vote is denying the right to vote. But Holder’s chutzpah is up to the task.
Attorney General Holder claims that the states’ requirement of photo identification for voting, in order to prevent voter fraud, is just a pretext for discriminating against blacks and other minorities. He apparently sees no voter fraud, hears no voter fraud and speaks no voter fraud.
Despite Holder’s claim, a little experiment in his own home voting district showed how easy it is to commit voter fraud. An actor — a white actor, at that — went to a voting place where Eric Holder is registered to vote, and told them that he was Eric Holder.
The actor had no identification at all with him, either with or without a photo. He told the voting official that he had forgotten and left his identification in his car. Instead of telling him to go back to the car and get some identification, the official said that that was all right, and offered him the ballot.
The actor had the good sense not to actually take the ballot, which would have made him guilty of voter fraud — and, being white, he would undoubtedly have been prosecuted by Eric Holder’s Department of Justice.
But the actor had made his point. When a white man with no identification can go to a voting site, impersonate a black man who lives in that district, and get his ballot offered to him, then it is far too easy to commit voter fraud.
Does not Attorney General Eric Holder understand that? Of course he understands it! The man is not stupid, despite his other failings.
Holder’s pooh-poohing of voter fraud dangers, and hyping the “threat” of denying minorities “access” to the voting booth, are completely consistent with his drive to (1) maximize the number of votes by black Democrats and (2) spread as much fear as possible among minorities that they are under siege, and that the Democrats are their only protection and salvation.
It is a political protection racket, with payoffs in votes.
Nor can Holder’s boss, Barack Obama, be unaware of voter fraud. After all, he comes from Chicago, where voting officials refuse to discriminate against dead people.
COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM
About the Author
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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AllAmericanAmerican| 6.5.12 @ 6:50AM
Democrats can't win WITHOUT voter fraud. Its as simple as that.
TLP| 6.5.12 @ 3:11PM
You need a PHOTO I.D. to get in to the Justice Department Building, to see Eric Holder.
Nuff said.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 6.5.12 @ 8:42AM
Voter fraud is not merely identity theft, it is also democracy theft, and is a threat to the republic. That the left resists reforms to inhibit it so vigorously is an indication of how critical it is for any strategy they have for victory.
JD| 6.5.12 @ 11:41AM
I am denied my right to vote when a fraudulent vote cancels out my vote.
Anthony| 6.5.12 @ 9:13AM
Thank you Dr. Sowell, however that man was not an actor, he was a citizen journalist from Breitbart News. They do more news than all the frauds in the LSM combined.
Holder is corrupt as the day is long. He and Obozo should be indicted as accessories to murder of two boarder agents in Fast & Furious. Yet the R leadership, under Boehner, is too scared to even hold Holder in contempt.
The idea that voter I.D. is somehow racist is just another example of how blatant leftism has become because it has a lying, corrupt media behind it.
Not one journalist in the so called LSM have called this what it is.
Emmett still insists leftism is dying. It's now a race to see who will die first, leftism or America itself.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 6.5.12 @ 11:15AM
Sometimes the parasite takes the host with it.
Anthony| 6.5.12 @ 11:45AM
Sadly, you are correct.
Who Knows?| 6.5.12 @ 12:26PM
I have an either-or for you.
American exceptionalism or
American deception-alism.
Guess who falls into the latter?
DRed| 6.5.12 @ 12:47PM
So those of you concerned with the integrity of the electoral process-where have you been while Florida has been stripping American citizens from their voter rolls (again)?
Albert Constantine Jr.| 6.5.12 @ 2:55PM
The US Department of Homeland Security Citizen and Immigration Service could stop that from happening if they would release to the State of Florida the names and identifying information of those who were naturalized as US citizens in public ceremonies, but it has been reported that they have refused to do so.
TLP| 6.5.12 @ 3:14PM
He doesn't care.
"They came for the Jews, and I said nothing" means zero to people, like him.
Anthony| 6.5.12 @ 1:10PM
Well DRed, in case you haven't gotten the memo, you lose your right to vote upon your demise.
Well, except where Ds are involved and a reserve of votes are required to insure D fraud.
Tom Kyba| 6.5.12 @ 1:51PM
DRed's chutzpah. Trying to convince people reading these comments that the right are the ones engaging in cheating voters of their rights. Pathetic. If you were a man you would be disgusted by voter fraud wherever it occurs. The fact that instead of engaging in a little introspection regarding the ideology you defend you knee jerk the same stupid response as all other brain dead liberals says it all. Thank you for the ego boost. Realizing how intellectually bankrupt you and the rest of your cult are makes me feel like a freaking genius by comparison.
Dave Williams| 6.5.12 @ 2:31PM
Holder is an affirmative-action POS, just like his boss. How the founders of this once-great country would be SICKENED to see who gets the power these days. Can we pull out of this death-spiral...maybe...voting out the DemonRats this November is a necessary but not sufficient condition. And today's vote, which every sane person hopes will reinstate Scott Walker, would be a mighty fine start.
TLP| 6.5.12 @ 3:15PM
He's a RACIST.
Nothing more
Appleby| 6.5.12 @ 4:01PM
Once upon a time, the firm I worked for was acquired by a larger firm, and one of the managing partners had a flunky who haunted our small group of new acquisitions and caused endless amounts of trouble as she acted in the name of one of the most annoying and abrasive of the new Managers.
Then the other managers staged a Palace Coup and turfed her patron out. And there she stood on top of a hill, nekkid in the breeze, with not a single ally to cover her bare backside.
That's the way I see Eric Holder come November 2012.
seriocomic222| 6.5.12 @ 4:49PM
FTA: "An actor -- a white actor, at that -- went to a voting place where Eric Holder is registered to vote, and told them that he was Eric Holder."
Um, as I remember the clip, the actor, wisely, did NOT claim to be Eric Holder; he said something like, "Do you have Eric Holder on your list?"
If I'm correct, Dr. S, the essay needs amending.
Marie| 6.6.12 @ 1:04PM
People like Eric Holder think they are too smart to get caught or are above the law. That is usually what a criminal mind thinks, too. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Ken (Old Texican)| 6.6.12 @ 9:32PM
The American people have been very patient. That will END if Obama and crew are re-elected.