Eric Holder, at his swearing in, said (1) that quite properly there was going to be no political favoritism in his department, and (2) that such a clean ethical slate would be a break from the past. All fine and good and much appreciated. But did the contrast mean, as he implied, the Bush administration, or was it the Clinton administration, in which he personally arranged a pardon as a political favor for a fugitive on the FBI’s ten-most-wanted list–in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations to the Clintons’ various appendages? One would think that after the last ten days of Obama crash-and-burn nominees and Holder’s own rocky problems, set against the constant utopian and Bush-did-it rhetoric, that Team Obama would lay off blaming the past, and lay off the grandiose ethical hope and change sermons. Everyone wishes Holder well, so simply look forward, not back, and show us ethical deeds rather than preemptive ethical rhetoric.

Otherwise nemesis always comes back to bite in the end.