A number of Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut have described Attorney General Eric Holder’s use of race to attack his critics as unacceptable, saying that he should resign or be fired.
Brian K. Hill, a former military attorney with the Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) and Republican candidate for Sen. Joe Lieberman’s current seat, denounced Holder’s rhetoric as baseless. “Holder has taken political pandering to an entirely new level by labeling his critics ‘racists’ for calling him out on his general mismanagement of the Justice Department, and for his propensity to file frivolous civil rights violation cases,” Hill — who is black — said in a campaign release. “This is utter nonsense. The issue is not a matter of race; it’s a matter of right and wrong. And in this case, the [attorney general] is wrong on all counts.”
In a phone interview, Hill told The Daily Caller that he thinks Holder needs to go. “I think he should resign for a number of failures, including Operation Fast and Furious,” Hill said. “There are three things I’m particularly upset with the attorney general on: Most recently, he’s trying to brand the New Haven[, Conn.] Police Department as violating Latino civil rights without providing any substantial evidence of the conclusions.”
“I’m also concerned that they’re trying to play the race card with these voter identification rules that are going into effect that require voters to provide identification at the polls,” Hill said, adding that Americans have to show their IDs for the most “mundane transactions” nowadays to fight fraud, so he thinks voting — a cornerstone of democracy — should also be protected from fraud.
The third “failure” Hill said he’s upset with Holder about is Operation Fast and Furious. “People were killed,” Hill said. “Lots of weapons were put in the hands of known criminals.”
Hill added that he agrees with Florida Republican Rep. Allen West, who said that Holder’s race card is a sign of political desperation.
Former U.S. Rep. Chris Shays, another Republican Senate candidate in Connecticut, also thinks Holder’s race card play is unacceptable and that Holder should resign. During his time in Congress, Shays served on the House oversight committee — the principal vehicle lawmakers are using to investigate Fast and Furious. Shays told TheDC he has followed the investigation over the past year, and thinks that Holder hasn’t acted as he should have from the beginning.
“As soon as this came to light, the attorney general should have said: ‘What the hell is going on here?’ and held people accountable,” Shays said. “But, what I saw, and what I feel I’ve seen, is that it’s an attempt on the part of the Department [of Justice] to kind of dismiss this program as not really a big deal — basically, an attempt to cover up a bad idea.”
“In any department, you want to see people in charge as being honest and candid with press, with Congress and with the White House,” Shays added. “I view this as an attempt to cover up what was ultimately a foolish idea. He [Holder] needs to resign, he needs to step down, because honesty and integrity matter and I believe he has been less than candid.”
A spokesperson for the current frontrunner for the nomination, former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon, refused to comment.
Attorney Peter Lumaj told The Daily Caller he thinks Holder’s comments “are unacceptable, intolerable, reprehensible, irresponsible, incendiary, and even Un-American.”
“We cannot allow Eric Holder or anyone else to use race as a defense to justify their failures. By using the race card he wants his critics silenced, intimidated and muzzled,” Lumaj said. “He is misleading the American people. As the top law enforcement of our nation, Holder has lost his creditably in the eyes of America and therefore, I believe he must resign.”*
The only other declared Republican candidate in the field — former Vernon, Conn. Mayor Jason McCoy — did not respond to a request for comment.
Lieberman, a independent who caucuses with Democrats, is retiring in 2012.
*This article has been updated to include a response from Lumaj after publication.