Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Richard Cohen Runs Around the Elephant in the Room While Righteously Attacking Eric Holder via Mondoweiss by Philip Weiss on 12/2/08 Richard Cohen is about as good as we get for a mainstream columnist these days, and he has a righteous column attacking the Eric Holder nod for Attorney General. All because Holder approved the Marc Rich pardon. The big issue, as I say again, is Why would a man disfigure his career for Marc Rich? Cohen can't explain it: It suggests that Holder, whatever his other qualifications, could not say no to power. The Rich pardon request had power written all over it -- the patronage of important Democratic fundraisers, for instance. Holder also said he was "really struck" by the backing of Rich by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the possibility of "foreign policy benefits that would be reaped by granting the pardon." This is an odd standard for American justice, but more than that, what was Holder thinking? That U.S.-Israeli relations would suffer? Holder does not sound naive. He sounds disingenuous.
I think Cohen is being disingenuous. He knows the hypocrisy at work here as well as anyone. The real issue here is, Why is Israel so important to our politicians? Why was Holder swept up in Israel stuff against his better judgment? What is the "power," to use Cohen's coinage, of the Israel lobby? Why did Ehud Barak have open access to Bill Clinton all thru 2000, in ways that Aaron David Miller say crippled Camp David? Cohen joined the tiresome attacks on Walt and Mearsheimer a year back. That wasn't helpful to his readers; for they actually explain things. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to Mondoweiss using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
