This country has recently had two very controversial Attorneys General, John Ashcroft and Eric Holder.   John Ashcroft served the first term of the George W. Bush administration.  Eric Holder currently holds the job.

What did the critics say about each and where was the press on those issues relevant to them?

John Ashcroft had just lost a Senate Race in Missouri when he was appointed by GW Bush.   Most Democrats voted against his confirmation because he had opposed laws that forced busing in metropolitan areas to achieve integration.  The media was highly critical but Bush’s appointee had the votes and Ashcroft became AG.

During his tenure Ashcroft supported what was known as the Patriot Act.   Section 215 of that act allowed the federal government access to the library records of individuals thought to be terrorists.   The media was totally opposed to this “intrusion” in the privacy of individuals and roundly criticized Ashcroft for his opinion on a political issue. 

Late in his tenure, he was roundly criticized for testifying that al Qaeda represented a direct threat and might soon attempt another attack in the United States.  He angered even more in the media and many Democrats when he testified before the 911 Commission and bluntly informed the chairman that Jamie Gorelick, a member on that commission, should be testifying before the commission rather than sitting in judgment of the testimony of others.  If everyone will recall, it was Jamie Gorelick's famous order that prevented the FBI and the CIA from sharing information with one another about known terrorists before the attack on 911.  

Ashcroft was also a proponent of the War on Drugs, an issue never popular with those on the left including the US media.  

Among the things we will likely remember the most about Ashcroft stemmed from his personal modesty.  He covered nude statues in the Justice Department.  Ashcroft was a religious man.  What the leftist elite regarded as art he regarded as offensive.  He didn’t remove them.  He simply covered them.

Thus, the criticism that probably drove Ashcroft to resign at the end of the first Bush term was reactions to his opinions and his modesty.  I do not recall criticism for any failure to enforce a law, only for his advice as to what those laws should be.    

Contrast Ashcroft with Eric Holder.

Like Ashcroft, Holder brought a record with him to the Attorney General position but his sin was his orchestration of the Marc Rich pardon in the last minutes of the Clinton Presidency.  Rich was a commodities trader who fled the country to avoid charges of tax evasion, mail fraud and trading with the enemy.  

Since assuming the responsibility of Attorney General, Holder has introduced lawsuits against two states for having the temerity to pass their own legislation that allowed them to enforce federal laws on illegal immigration, laws that Holder has refused to enforce.

Holder’s decision to dismiss charges against the New Black Panthers for voter intimidation at Pennsylvania Polls during the 2008 Election was barely mentioned by the mainstream media.   His testimony on the issue did not receive a lot of criticism either.  During that testimony Holder admitted that the “intimidation” that people encountered from those Black Panthers was nothing compared to what others of his race historically encountered.  Does it not matter to him when any citizen is hindered while attempting to vote?  He used his power to "get even" with citizens for sins of the past without regard to whether those sins belonged to them personally or to someone else.

Holder’s Justice Department has experienced resignations by US Attorneys who claimed Holder would not enforce crimes of black on white.  The voter intimidation in Philadelphia was apparently only one example.

Most recently Holder’s participation in the Fast & Furious program that sent guns to drug cartels in Northern Mexico has been in question.  Representative Issa asked him in testimony he gave to Issa’s committee in May 2011, just when he became aware of the Fast & Furious program.  Holder testified he had only recently, within the last few weeks, learned of this program.  There is now evidence that staff communicated to Holder about Fast & Furious as early as March or April 2010.  It has yet to be determined whether Holder's testimony represented perjury or whether he and his department are simply so incompetent that he would not have been thoroughly briefed on the program prior to his testimony.   

Each of these examples of the performance of Eric Holder involves more than opinion.  It involves a willful neglect to enforce our laws and a racist influence he has had in the Justice Department.  Holder has deliberately abused his position and has used his power selectively to enforce his duties as Attorney General.  Ashcroft only had opinions and to my knowledge never abused his position by willfully neglecting his responsibilities as our chief law enforcement officer.  Yet, the media vilified Ashcroft and thus far, I have seen nothing of that kind of furor over the attitude and performance of Holder.