I have written often to try to expose what's really going on with Eric Holder's support for so-called smarter sentencing initiatives. I could not possibly do more to expose it, however, than Holder himself did two days ago by praising these initiatives at none other than race-huckster Al Sharpton's National Action Network Convention.
I'll say one thing for Mr. Holder: He didn't try to hide it or put lipstick on it. His gushing praise for Big Al, in the same speech and in the same venue as his praise for watered-down sentencing for drug dealers, is front and center on the Department of Justice website. Among other things, Mr. Holder says:
Thank you, Reverend [Al] Sharpton - and thank you all for such a warm welcome. It's a pleasure to be back home in New York City. And it's a tremendous honor to join the National Action Network - once again - in helping to open your important Annual Convention....[W]e have modified the Department's charging policies so that defendants accused of certain nonviolent, low-level federal drug crimes will face sentences appropriate to their individual conduct, rather than stringent mandatory minimums, which will now be reserved for the most serious criminals. We are increasing our emphasis on innovative diversion programs like community service initiatives that can serve as alternatives to incarceration.
Translation: Since incarceration actually works, we're going to cut back on it.
Perspective: Holder knows that slashing sentences for drug pushers will go over big with the President's political base.
Still, I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on the Attorney General. It's only fitting that he should praise someone who provided so much help to the FBI.
I also shouldn't be too hard on Holder's heaping praise on the man who, from this photograph, would appear to be his boss:
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