Eric Holder, the eighty-second Attorney General of the United States who was nominated by President Barack Obama and who joined the cabinet in 2009, has just resigned. Many Americans are taking to Twitter with an interesting array of job suggestions for Attorney General Eric Holder, who opined on everything from the controversial Washington Redskins name to various racial issues. JennJacques suggests “Race relations community outreach director in Ferguson, MO.” Seapirate1 suggests: “Piano player in a Mexican whorehouse.” Debevoise & Plimpton, the white shoe New York law firm where the last full time attorney general, Michael Mukasey, works, might have other ideas. But they don’t tweet a lot.
Holder is associated with a number of operations/scandals. In 2012, Holder became the first sitting member of the Cabinet to be held in contempt of Congress. The AG wasn’t forthcoming with documents related to “Operation Fast and Furious” — where ATF field agents “purposely allowed licensed firearms dealers to sell weapons to illegal straw buyers, hoping to track the guns to Mexican drug cartel leaders and arrest them.” A small percentage of the guns were tracked down, and many of these were found at crime scenes. One of the Fast and Furious guns was used to kill US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Whether he plays piano or not, Eric Holder’s next job will almost certainly not be near the Mexican border. Could it be on Wall Street? There is that old adage to consider: if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. In 2013, Holder famously told the Senate that some of the financial institutions have become too large, making it difficult for the Justice Department to effectively bring criminal charges against them. In other words the banks are not just too big to fail, but too big to prosecute. They probably have an extra desk, too.
