The Senate today confirmed Eric Holder as the nation's first black AG. This is in spite of the efforts of Senators like John "Cornhole" Cornyn to play politics with this nomination.
So, Holder's confirmation is a rebuke to the extreme right wing and its sleazy motives.
And to his colleague Cornholio, Senator Leahy issued a rather strong rebuke.
The debate turned partisan in its first moments, when Leahy, expressed anger that a few Republicans demanded a pledge from Holder that he wouldn't prosecute intelligence agents who participated in harsh interrogations.
Leahy singled out Texas Republican John Cornyn as one who wanted to "turn a blind eye to possible lawbreaking before investigating whether it occurred."
"No one should be seeking to trade a vote for such a pledge," Leahy said.
Senators like Cornyn and Coburn are an embarrassment, and their political hypocrisy seems to know no bounds. Cornyn routinely turned a blind eye to the abuses of power by the Bush White House and by Bush's AG, Alberto Gonzales. So, kudos to Leahy for calling him out on this. And Kudos, even, to the GOP Senators who voted to confirm.
Of course, though, for Pat Leahy to suggest to these cornholes that they "come on the right side of history" is to assume a conscience and a basic level of intelligence and decency on their part that is probably not there.
Cornyn is, instead, a partisan GOP attack dog, and very little else. And, with apologizies, in advance, for quoting from a tainted source like Fox News we can see where he is coming from in the following right wing "to do" list:
Since the 111th Congress convened on Jan. 6, the former Texas Supreme Court justice and state attorney general has tried to stymie Hillary Clinton's secretary of state confirmation, stall Eric Holder's appointment to be attorney general and keep Democrat Al Franken from taking the disputed Minnesota Senate seat. He has also publicly scolded Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on several occasions.
Cornyn is making no excuses for it, despite the call for a new bipartisan spirit by President Obama and his emerging allies among the GOP, most notably his former presidential opponent, Sen. John McCain.
Anyway, now that Holder is getting confirmed, may he successfully clean up the toxic muck left by his predecessors, with considerable help by the hackish likes of John Cornyn, the Great Cornholio of the U.S. Senate.