they know what's important in their view-- it's never us, rights, laws, jobs, opportunity, health, homes, etc -- anything that's good for the majority.

they cheered when they stopped SCHIP expansion. they cheered when they killed the Auto loan. they cheer at their own evil work always--and don't need Rove.

Obstructed good things -- and forcing their agenda thru -- are their only goals --and so far they've been wildly successful still--and will continue to be, tragically--especially as long as Obama and Congress refuse to force a better agenda thru.

Holder, tho, is no prize nor a threat to them, but simply a symbol of their power to stop what Dems or Obama wants -- that's why they're making a big deal of him, as opposed to other cabinet appointees. Holder and Obama will never punish anyone involved in the DOJ crimes, and they know it.

and the Obama administration, filled with their so-called bipartisan fervor, will offer a compromise so Holder will be approved. And I'm betting the compromise will include letting all the bad guys go free for their crimes at the DOJ and beyond (including Gitmo torture, telecom spying, etc.). The rat-fucking begins and there will be wild cheering from the kool-aid drinkers (including my dear friend who tells me EVERYTHING WILL GET BETTER now that we have a black president). The Overton window will have moved so far right it jams, but the fauxgresives will still be celebrating their center-right Reaganite as the most 'gressive EVAH! Sadly, those of us who are progressive or liberal will be ignored as roundly as we were during the Reagan years as Republican bipartisanship ("date-rape", as they like to think of it) flourishes again.

Rove has created his permanent Republican majority. The joke, though, on all of us with any liberal sensibilities, is that he did it with Democrats.

Look how great he left the Republican Party, he nearly ruined it. If the Dems concede its out of their own free will. The public is on the Dems side no matter what the GOP does and any conservative policy failures are the sole responsibility of the Dems, not Rove or the GOP. Clinton was willing to shut down the government to prevent GOP policies. Obama doesn't even have to worry about that.

Eric Holder and Chiquita

... * does Holder personally believe that U.S. corporations that do direct or indirect harm to citizens of a foreign country need not be held accountable to those citizens?

It will be difficult to get a definitive answer to any of these questions, and in fact the answer to all of them may be “no.”

Still, the U.S. Justice Department is likely to be dealing with Colombian paramilitary groups in several contexts, including possible future actions against U.S. corporations that may have aided them, and of course the criminal cases against fifteen extradited paramilitary leaders in U.S. custody since May of this year.

In private practice, Holder sought to downplay the severity of his client’s funding of Colombia’s paramilitaries and perhaps sought to prevent or minimize reparations to victims. As attorney-general, however, Holder can do great harm to U.S. credibility in Colombia and Latin America if he is perceived to be throwing obstacles in the way of the paramilitaries’ victims’ rights to truth and reparations. ...