Attorney General Eric Holder is fun to watch, though he is infuriating. He’s fun because he’s so inconsistent, hypocritical, ignorant and corrupt. So basically he’s your average politician, only more so.

Online poker players have started paying attention to him of late due to the Black Friday indictments. His Department of Justice is prosecuting eleven people connected to the largest online poker websites in the world. When asked about it, Holder said that the indictments are appropriate. He also seemed to suggest that his hands are tied. “We have to enforce the law as it exists and there are laws on the books with regard to Internet gambling that we have to enforce.”

There are a number of problems with this statement. One problem is that saying there is a law against online poker that must be enforced implies that there is a law against online poker. There isn’t. Not a federal law in any case, though some states and other jurisdictions have laws against it. UIGEA only requires banks to not process transactions related to online gambling that is prohibited by other laws. Since there is no federal law banning online poker, I’m really interested to see what law “on the books” he’s talking about.

Another problem with the statement is that Holder is saying that his hands are tied. He has to prosecute those people because of a law on the books! Really? Holder had no problem with ordering prosecutors to stand down and look the other way at crimes committed by the Black Panthers. If Holder was keen on making sure the Justice Department enforces immigration laws, Arizona wouldn’t have felt a need to pass their own immigration law. Holder says that the DOJ can’t simply ignore crimes, but the ATF did exactly that while watching straw men run guns across the border to the Mexican drug cartels. Not only did the ATF (part of the DOJ) let it happen, they allegedly aided it and told the gun stores to allow the purchases. Holder says that he has to comply with the law, but he has refused to comply with the Congressional subpoenas for documents related to Operation Gunrunner. The Department of Justice, under Holder, also decided that it was no longer going to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, because they think it’s unconstitutional. That may be true, but isn’t it the judiciary branch’s job to determine that?

I can come up with many more examples, by the point is this: Eric Holder has absolutely no problem picking and choosing which laws he wants to enforce and which he wants to ignore. He has done it time and again. For some reason, he and the DOJ decided that the online poker case was one they needed to take up. It’s time for him to be honest and tell us why.

He probably wouldn’t have a good answer, though, since he doesn’t even have an opinion about whether poker is a game of skill or a game of chance. During a Judiciary Committee meeting, Holder said that he doesn’t play poker, so he doesn’t know if there is skill involved. Representative Steve Cohen had a great response, asking him if Phil Ivey is simply really lucky to become rich as a professional poker player. Holder’s response? “I am not sure I know who Phil Ivey is.”

So there it is. Holder knows little about poker, won’t say whether there is skill involved, but still thinks this is a case important enough to devote DOJ resources.

Tags: Black Friday, Department of Justice, Eric Holder

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 4th, 2011 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.