HOLD THAT HOLDER – AT 8:09 A.M. ET:  As my friend, Silvio Canto Jr., puts it,  "Dismiss Attorney General Holder and call it 'the war on terror' again!"

Can you believe how badly this one attorney general of the United States has messed things up?  This is the man who decided to drop a slam-dunk case against the new Black Panthers for voter intimidation at the polls in 2008, and never explained the outrage.  This is the man who brought decidedly leftist lawyers into the Justice Department, many of whom came from the same firm that made a cult out of defending Gitmo detainees.  This is the man who decided to try the mastermind of 9-11 in a civilian courtroom in New York City, giving this individual the greatest media platform in the world and putting New Yorkers at risk.  This is the man whose foot soldiers read the Christmas-day airline bomber his Miranda rights – even though the bomber isn't an American citizen – after only 50 minutes of interrogation, prompting the terrorist to clam up.

Eric Holder.  What a guy.  Prime candidate for early retirement and a gold watch.

Now, one of Holder's worst decisions seems to be crumbling.  We reported early word last night.  Confirmation has since come, but The New York Times, flying the leftist flag to the last, is grudging about it:

WASHINGTON — Facing mounting pressure from New York politicians concerned about costs and security, the Obama administration on Thursday began considering moving the trial of the chief organizer of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks out of Manhattan, administration officials said.

Considering?  My friend, that corpse is cold.  The trial won't be held in New York.  If Obama hesitates over the change, Congress will refuse to appropriate the funds.

President Obama said through a spokesman that he still believed a civilian criminal trial for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has admitted planning the attacks, and four accomplices could be conducted “successfully and securely in the United States.” He did not mention New York specifically.

Mr. Obama left the decision on possible alternate sites to the Justice Department, which was scrambling to assess the options, administration officials said.

A decision to move the Sept. 11 trial from Manhattan would be a retreat by the administration from its calculated choice in November to bring the defendants to a courthouse just blocks from where the World Trade Center stood.

Yeah.  "Calculated."  But what, precisely, went into the calculation?

The dispute over a trial location, touched off when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York complained of costs and disruption, threatened to reopen the divisive question of how those accused of plotting the murder of more than 3,000 Americans should be brought to justice.

Huh?  The dispute was touched off by Bloomberg?  Do guys on The Times read their own paper?  This dispute has been ongoing since the decision was first announced months ago?  Bloomberg came to the party, this week, a bit late, after a public outcry.

Well, at least the job is getting done, despite Eric Holder.  We'll keep an eye on it.

January 29,  2010