Glen Greenwald comments on Holder’s connection to the Rich pardon

Having said all of that, why doesn’t Holder’s involvement in the Rich pardon make him unqualified to be Attorney General? Aside from the vital fact that there are many other factors that must be taken into account — principally, the likelihood that Holder can and will reverse the extreme Justice Department abuses of the last eight years, which I think is relatively high (though he should renounce his disturbing 2002 pro-Rumsfeld statements about Guantanamo and the Geneva Conventions) — it’s because none of these sins are unique to Holder.

This is vintage Washington. This is the filthy, venal sleaze on which both political parties feed. It’s what fuels how the Beltway operates. It’s the leading cause of why it functions as a corrupt, dysfunctional, bloated, incestuous royal court. That’s what Washington is. For that reason, it would be next to impossible to find people who have been a part of this system who haven’t been infected — or more accurately: who haven’t infected themselves — at one point or another with this disease.

More than anything else, Obama’s endless invocation of the “change” mantra was not about promises of sharp ideological or even policy shifts — as needed as those may be — but instead, was about changing this core Beltway dynamic, delousing the Washington culture. A consensus has emerged, which I more or less share, that condemning the not-yet-inaugurated Obama presidency based merely on his appointments of establishment re-treads and war supporters is premature, irrational and unfair.

Obama has repeatedly said that his appointees are there to implement and carry out his agenda. There are reasons to believe Obama can and will carry through on his “change” commitments, and there are also ample, reasonable grounds for doubting that he will. Either way, though it’s constructive to express views on his high-level appointments, it makes sense to wait to see what Obama himself actually does as President before assessing whether his commitments are illusory.

But — as the Holder nomination perfectly illustrates — one thing that has become quite tiresome, and irrational in the extreme, are those people who, on the one hand, insist that criticisms of Obama based on his appointments are premature and unfair, but on the other hand, are falling all over themselves with praise for Obama based on his supposedly ingenuous appointments. If Obama critics are well-advised to withhold criticism until Obama is actually in office and begins to do things (as I think is true), then Obama loyalists are equally well-advised to wait before joyously celebrating the smashing success of his presidency.

Despite that, it is now commonplace among giddy establishment pundits and Obama-reverent bloggers (two increasingly indistinguishable groups) to righteously announce that “the adults are back in charge.” David Ignatius pronounced that Robert Gates is “the most reassuring figure of all, as a reminder that the adults will be in charge here.” Fred Hiatt this morning is celebrating Obama’s appointments as a “Team of Centrists” who are “proven pragmatists and team players.” One limitlessly Obama-enamored blogger adopted Beltway Seriousness lingo to gush that Obama “has effectively sidelined critics of his foreign policy vision [which includes war opponents such as Dennis Kucinich] to the kiddie table over there in the corner” and “they will all continue to screech now and then, and the adults [Obama's team of mostly establishment figures and war supporters] will look over condescendingly and tell them to pipe down or there’s no dessert.”

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The harmonious celebration of these appointments is mystifying indeed. The Washington establishment has ruined everything it’s touched over the last decade. The Republicans have wielded more power and thus led the way, but Beltway Democrats — including many of these appointees who are being heralded as our New Magnanimous Serious Adult Guardians — have been acquiescent to virtually all of it, complicit in most of it, and beneficiaries of the system that spawned it all. They’re everything but crusading reformists.

It’s true that these appointments, standing alone, don’t prove that Obama will change nothing meaningful and that his campaign commitments were illusory. That will be determined by him, not by them.

But it’s at least just as true that these appointments don’t demonstrate that joyous and transformative change and Benevolent Adult Leadership has arrived. How could they? These are all the same people — Tom Daschle, Bob Gates, Greg Craig, Joe Biden, Eric Holder, Larry Summers, Hillary Clinton, to say nothing of the armies of recycled allies and underlings they’ll bring with them — who have been wielding plenty of power in Washington for years and years, who are leading pillars in the Washington establishment, who have been feeding off of the very system that Obama himself has repeatedly identified as the root of most of our problems, the system that led to Marc Rich’s pardon and countless other, far more significant transgressions.

By all means, wait to judge Obama based on his decisions and policies, not who he appoints to administer them. But that should be true for both praise and criticism. Heaping praise and gratitude on the very same people who have been integral parts of the broken, dirty Washington system — thank God that Tom Daschle, Bob Gates, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden are in charge! — borders on the masochistic, particularly without seeing evidence that they will do things differently than what they’ve done in the past. Will Eric Holder operate by different rules than what guided him in the Rich pardon? One won’t know until he begins operating, but skepticism (i.e., demanding evidence before issuing praise of political officials) is far more constructive than giddy, unearned optimism.

If you’re someone who basically thinks that the Washington political system works fine and has been run by the Good, Serious Adults who rule over the rabble for their own good — in other words, if you’re Fred Hiatt or David Ignatius — it makes perfect sense to celebrate these appointments. For anyone else, skepticism is warranted — how could it not be? — and praise and gratitude and celebratory Change parades make sense if and when they’re actually warranted by actions. The closer one’s proximity has been to the bipartisan Washington establishment, the less entitled they are — not the more — to a presumption of Magnanimous, Serious, Adult, Transformative leadership.