It’s been rumored many times, but now it’s apparently happening: Attorney General Eric Holder will reportedly resign today at a formal White House announcement. The timing–other than representing a step Holder wanted to take a long time ago–may have been influenced by the possibility–I wouldn’t call it a probability–of a successor being confirmed during a lame-duck session, before the presumed addition of Republican senators elected in November.
Republicans–particularly those who don’t mind raising suspicions of racism–will miss Holder as a regular punching bag and as part of the conspiracy of those people to rig the system to benefit looters and scofflaws. His record is mixed, even on the civil rights measures he emphasized, but as with Obama himself, you have to take into account the limitations on his freedom of action. If the administration does try to get a permanent replacement confirmed, I suspect it will be someone far more colorless–double entendre intended–than Eric Holder, and that will be a shame.
