Second in a series
Re “Times’ Essayist Is Not Quick to Crown Holder’s Reign”
[img]2761|right|Charles Blow||no_popup[/img]Charles Blow, weekly essayist for The New York Times, who frequently writes on race relations, said he admired outgoing U.S. Atty. General Eric Holder for displaying the freedom to roam legally. “He never felt particularly hamstrung,” Mr. Blow said before addressing the Urban Issues Breakfast Forum last Friday at the African-American Museum.
On the contrary, this was a behavior that his critics tartly and frequently cited as a weakness.
“Sometimes in the Obama White House,” said Mr. Blow, “there is probably the thought that he should be more judicious.”
Mr. Holder was the third longest-serving attorney general and only one to be charged with contempt of Congress, in the gun-running-to-Mexico Fast and Furious case.
Mr. Blow lauded Mr. Holder for moving boldly in advancing voting rights for the historically deprived.
“What has been happening with the Supreme Court around voting rights and elections in general, and the movement on the ground to restrict voting rights while the Justice Dept. tries to figure out how to not have that happen” – all resulting from Mr. Holder’s aggressive responses – “is a big deal.”
Scorning attempts by Republicans to tighten voting laws presumably to root out fraud, Mr. Blow said the widely scattered attempts to impose photo identification laws on voters “is a solution in search of a problem.”
Voter fraud is so rare as to be infinitesimal, he said. By contrast, “we know the number of voters who would be affected by a photo ID law are enormous.”
(To be continued)
