COMMENTARY: Obama and Holder Team Up Against GOP

 President Barack Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder are speaking out, pushing back, and mocking Republicans who are threatening to sue Obama and impeach Holder. It’s refreshing and inspiring to watch two of the most powerful black men in the nation working together as a political tag team to openly criticize misguided Republicans who are bent on suing Obama and blocking the President’s legislative agenda.

Obama and Holder have taken the high road for the past few years, largely ignoring Republican low-blows, snide remarks, disrespectful racial jokes, and downright lies. But today, it appears that Obama and Holder are fed up with the GOP’s relentless, irresponsible and racially-motivated browbeating and public ridicule.

“There’s a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me, that’s directed at me [and] directed at the President,” Holder told ABC last week. “You know, people talking about taking their country back. … There’s a certain racial component to this for some people. I don’t think this is the thing that is a main driver, but for some there’s a racial animus.”

Holder, who constantly faces calls of impeachment by Republicans, also stood by his controversial comments made during Obama’s first year in office, in which he said the U.S. was a “nation of cowards” when it comes to race.

“I wouldn’t walk away from that speech,” Holder said. “I think we are still a nation that is too afraid to confront racial issues,” rarely engaging “one another across the color line [to] talk about racial issues.” And as House Republicans prepare to sue the President this month for what they see as an excessive use of executive authority in the Affordable Care Act, Obama mocked the GOP leadership.

“You hear some of them … ‘Sue him! Impeach him!” Obama recently told backers in Austin, Texas, imitating his critics. “Really? Really? For what? You’re going to sue me for doing my job?” “So far this year, Republicans in Congress have blocked every serious idea to strengthen the middle class,” Obama said in his weekly address. “Lifting the minimum wage, fair pay, student loan reform – they’ve said no to all of it,” “And that’s when I’ve acted this year to help working Americans on my own – when Congress won’t act. I’ve taken actions to attract new jobs, lift workers’ wages, help students pay off their loans and more.”

But the Republican plan “is not to do some of this work with me – instead, it’s to sue me,” the President said. “That’s actually what they’re spending their time on. It’s a political stunt that’s going to waste months of America’s time. And by the way, they’re going to pay for it using your hard-earned tax dollars.”

And the president offered Republicans in Congress a “better idea.” “Do something,” he said. “Do anything to help working Americans. Join the rest of the country. Join me. I’m looking forward to working with you.” Nobody in the White House really believes the president will be working with congressional Republicans any time soon. They know Republicans would prefer to stall Obama’s legislative agenda – even it if benefits their own constituents – just to stick it to the President. It borders on lunacy. Meanwhile, Holder also criticized Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) lawsuit against Obama.

“It’s a more, I think, a political gesture than a truly legal one,” Holder told ABC. “Filing a lawsuit against the President that has no basis is not going to improve the quality of life for the American people.” Holder also took a shot at former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who has called for the impeachment of Obama.

“She wasn’t a particularly good vice-presidential candidate,” Holder said. “She’s an even worse judge of who ought to be impeached and why.”

I’m glad to see Holder and Obama fighting the good fight against narrow-minded Republicans. The president and Holder only have a year-in-a-half left to help improve the quality of life for African-Americans and citizens of color and, thankfully, these two influential black men are not going out quietly.

What do you think?

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