Fight The Power-- Holder Comes Out For Telecom Immunity

Telecom Immunity was wrong under Bush and it's wrong under Obama. Many of us told ourselves that, though Obama voted for it, he didn't really mean it and that he secretly supported the Constitution over and above the power of the unitary executive. Now that he's the executive... we'd better think twice.

Eric Holder, who's having a tougher time being confirmed than most of Obama's cabinet nominees, reached out to the far right last week by telling them he has every intention of defending "congressional legislation immunizing U.S. telecommunication companies from lawsuits about their participation in the Bush administration's domestic spy program."

"The duty of the Justice Department is to defend statutes that have been passed by Congress," Holder told Sen. Orin Hatch (R-Utah), who asked whether the Obama administration would continue the legal fight to uphold the legislation that the Electronic Frontier Foundation is seeking to overturn.

"Unless there are compelling reasons, I don't think we would reverse course," Holder added.

If I were in the Senate this would be enough to keep me from voting to confirm Holder. I hope this isn't what Obama means by "dusting ourselves off." This is more like it and way more like what we elected him to do!