Poll: Eric Holder Slightly Less Hated Than Sebelius

As Attorney General Eric Holder
prepares to step down as head of the Department of Justice
(DOJ), a recent
YouGov poll asked the American people what they think of the
mustachioed mandarin.

Apparently, about as much as they think of
a free U2 album—which is to say, not much at all: Holder will
leave his job with a 26 percent favorable rating. Thirty-seven
percent of respondents give him an unfavorable rating, while
another 37 percent have no opinion either way.

The good news for Holder is that he is slightly less disliked
than
the other two Obama administration officials who stepped down
this year. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shineski
clocked in at 18 percent favorable, followed closely on the heels
by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at 19
percent.

But is 26 percent what Holder deserves, given his track
record? 

The DOJ
continued raiding medical marijuana dispensaries in California
despite
promises to the contrary. Mexican drug cartels ran
guns under
the aegis of Holder’s DOJ that led to the death of a border
agent. It took a 13-hour Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) filibuster to get
Holder
to admit, after much waffling and gnashing of teeth, that
the president can’t unilaterally kill American citizens.

From civil liberties to government transparency, Holder doesn’t
have much to be proud of. And given
his past proclivities for harsh prosecution, Holder’s recent

hat-tips to criminal justice reform seem more like
a rearguard action than a cavalry charge against the
system.

Which makes it all the more depressing that his approval rating
is highest among African Americans at 57 percent favorable—arguably
the very demographic
most negatively impacted by an aggressive DOJ. What
does a guy in this town have to do to be universally
reviled?