Doubt is rapidly dwindling about Attorney General Holder's creeping passion to spend more time with his family. He's boxed himself out, so to speak.
"In regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material--that is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy," testified Holder earlier this month to the House judiciary committee, although potential prosecution is precisely what he had signed off on.
That self-constructed trap is, in itself, untenable. Yet attempted escape is even worse. The attorney general's only conceivable "out" is to claim that Justice never intended to prosecute the reporter in question under the 1917 Espionage Act--one of the most contemptible pieces of war-fevered legislation ever to pass Congress--although a criminal finding was, in effect, factually presented to a federal court so that warrants could be obtained.
Now what can Holder possibly say to that? We were just joking? Stretching the truth? Hoodwinking a federal judge?
After Holder packs his bags, an excellent rebeginning would be to hold a wake for the WWI-era Espionage Act, which--along with its dead sister legislation, the Sedition Act of 1918--was an offensive tangle of constitutional law and a skulking threat to civil liberties. Combined, they represented so much of what critics of Big Brother overreach have for decades deplored: government secrecy--always secrecy, then some more--and the (potential) kneecapping of any who object.