Christine M. Flowers: Taking the Holder challenge

WHEN you call someone a coward, you'd better have your own house in order.

Eric Holder seems to have forgotten that bit of wisdom. The attorney general has no problem accusing us the people of having a yellow streak when it comes to discussing race, but he's not exactly a profile in courage himself.

After all, Gen. Holder rolled over like a pliant puppy when his old boss Bill Clinton ordered the pardons of fugitive Marc Rich, two members of the Weather Underground and a passel of Puerto Rican terrorists. He should've resigned, given that the pardons violated Justice Department regulations. But Holder apparently valued his job over his scruples, such as they were, and did the president's bidding.

You could say that's how the game is played in D.C. You'd be right, of course. But at the very least, game players should lose the sanctimonious attitude. Not Holder. He exudes attitude, which is probably not surprising given his Clinton pedigree.

In his latest foray into controversy, our new attorney general says we need to have a conversation about race. As we all know, during a speech marking Black History Month, Holder said:

"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial, we have always been and continue to be in too many ways essentially a nation of cowards."

Some greeted this comments with applause, congratulating Holder - and themselves - for being courageous and enlightened warriors in the struggle for equality. Others made the eminently reasonable observation that the people who cheered Holder were often the same ones squelching any frank conversation about race, whipping out the "racist" label to describe anyone who actually wants to debate issues like affirmative action, single-parenting, school achievement or reverse discrimination.

I'll quote one typical comment on the Holder brouhaha: "the rabid rantmeisters of right-wing radio have been howling like offended wolves at U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's absolutely accurate assessment that Americans are cowards when it comes to talking about race."

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