Spin Cycle

One of the more amusing features of the solid NYTimes account today of AG nominee Eric Holder's role in the Clinton pardon of fugitive Marc Rich is a supportive comment from Larry Thompson (left), who served as Deputy AG in the Bush administration:

“There’s no way you can have a high-profile job in Washington like the deputy attorney general without attracting some kind of controversy. That matter has been fully investigated, and it should be put behind him.”

Thompson, of course, is the Deputy AG who signed off for Bush on extraditing innocent Canadian Maher Arar (right) to be tortured in Syria, in fairly blatant violation of US law. So, the let-bygones-be-bygones approach -- what's a torture of an innocent guy or a filthy pardon for a rich guy to big Washington players like us? -- seems a bit self-serving.

Presumably, he hopes Holder and Obama will be equally kind when and if they look at his behavior, and that of other officials who facilitated torture. Already, the sucking-up and favor-banking begins.

The Times story also features a disingenuous defense of Holder from his lawyer, Reid Weingarten: “Mr. Holder assumed that this was all being handled in the normal course. There’s no question that Quinn played him and it was astute by Quinn because he did catch Eric unawares.”

This claim is belied by the facts, and by the Times story -- which correctly describes how Holder, for two years, had been knowingly involved in efforts by Rich and Quinn to get around the opposition of other Justice Department prosecutors who, unlike Holder, had not been coopted by their own ambition.

At the end of the day, the climax of the story comes when Holder gives a personal recommendation directly to the White House for a pardon -- which he later claims he didn't focus on -- without ever even asking what the DoJ had recommended!

The pardon attorney reports through him. If he didn't have a recommendation in the "normal course," and didn't ask about a recommendation generated in the "normal course," it becomes fairly preposterous for his lawyer to pretend eight years later that he assumed everything had been handled in the "normal course."

When all your lawyer can do is lie, it kind of suggests your behavior is indefensible.

The story also quotes Lamar Smith, ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee: “Marc Rich was a fugitive for nearly two decades, wanted by the federal government for fraud and tax evasion. If a Republican official had engaged in this kind of activity, he would never receive Senate confirmation.”

Which is probably right. So, we'll see what the Democrats do.