The XX Factor: What women really think.

Holding Up Holder

Just to connect some dots here: Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are holding up the confirmation vote on President Obama’s nominee for attorney general, Eric Holder, in large part because they have “questions for Holder about whether he would favor prosecuting Bush administration officials for their involvement in warrantless wiretapping and harsh detainee interrogation practices.” John Cornyn, R-Texas, says he wants assurances in advance that Holder won’t launch a “witch hunt.”

Anyone else bothered by the fact that America’s top prosecutor is being asked to pledge that he will avoid investigating possible criminal conduct, despite the fact that this newly released Washington Post/ABC poll (h/t Glenn Greenwald) shows the majority of Americans (50 percent to 47 percent) would favor investigating abusive interrogation? As Glenn argues, that polling data pretty much sinks a massive meat fork into the unending false claim that there is no public will to scrutinize these matters. But it's worse than that: These numbers also suggest that some Senate Republicans want advance assurances from the nation’s top lawyer that he won’t even look into a crime most Americans want to see investigated.