Barry Obama’s pick for Deputy Attorney General, David Ogden, apparently “coasted” through his Senate hearing today, which is great news…for John McCain! FOR PORNOGRAPHERS. You see, Ogden’s appointment has come under much wingnut scrutiny in the last several days because Ogden (bless his soul) has served as a successful lawyer for Big Porn, including Playboy and, uh, The Internet Porn Company. He even secured the right of blind people to masturbate to braille-porn (”The Second Amendment”). MORE »

• SENATE CONFIRMS HOLDER IN HISTORIC HISTORY VOTE: The Senate voted 75-21 tonight to confirm Establishment Washington lawyer Eric Holder as “the new Alberto Gonzales.” Eric Holder is black, making him the first Marc-Rich-Pardon-Clearing Attorney General in American history. Let’s celebrate by waterboarding Michael Mukasey! [Washington Post]

Hooray for progress! The Senate Judiciary Committee just approved Eric Holder for the Attorney General spot, by 17-2, which means the full Senate will now happily okay his nomination and America will have its first-ever African-American head of the Justice Department. There is a certain justice to this development, MMMHMMM? Anyway let’s hope Holder is a little bit better than the first Mexican attorney general, jesus fucking christ. [Reuters]

Oh hey look at that, it appears our next Attorney General is not some bilious torture-fetishist sack of ooze! In his testimony before the Senate today, Eric Holder gave answers so unequivocally Soft on Terror that even the most unrepentant liberal of all, Senator Patrick Leahy of the gay marriage state of Vermont, approved. MORE »

During his tenure in office, George Bush created more than a housing bubble: he also fostered an “employment bubble” for high-functioning idiots, who were awarded fancy jobs in his administration and have since departed in shame and ignominy. Exhibit A: the hapless cretin, unemployed loser, and only Bush administration toady not to get a zillion dollars for his tell-all autobiography, Alberto Gonzales. MORE »

Well phew now everybody can just go back to mocking this guy for being a torture-lovin’ Bush sellout, because that scary incident where Michael Mukasey conked out in the middle of a speech did not signify a stroke or a heart attack or anything serious. He just had what a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice called “a fainting spell,” which is Republican code for “collapse due to oldness.” MORE »

The new Attorney General for President Hopesalot is Eric Holder, who was the deputy AG back when Bill Clinton was doing whatever slimy stuff, etc., this is what you get, but wait! Doesn’t this character look exactly like a convicted space monster from the early 1980s? Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff suggests Holder is actually a smuggler who ran spice out of Bill Clinton’s Mena Airport in Arkansas.

Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff reports that Washington lawyer and former deputy attorney general Eric Holder, who also co-led Obama’s vice presidential selection process, has flushed a Koran down the toilet. No! (Maybe?) But it’s really that Holder will serve as Obama’s attorney general. The first black attorney general ever, and first minority attorney general since the known Mexican Alberto Gonzales! The first attorney general generally speaking since Michael Mukasey! MORE »

A Wonkette St. Louis Radio Spy sends us a thrilling update on the John Ashcroft Saliva Auction, now taken down from eBay because it was too sexy for mainstream tastes. Our dreams of cloning a personal army of Ashcroft Sex Robots is slowly dimming. The sad report straight from a listener’s ears, after the jump. MORE »

Once upon a time John Ashcroft was widely regarded as the worst Attorney General ever, until Alberto Gonzales came along and showed America what a truly terrible Attorney General looked like. And then the news came about Gonzales and some other henchmen going to visit Ashcroft on his deathbed to sign some thing or other, and Ashcroft was like, “Eat a dick, Al,” which temporarily endeared him to the 400 Democrats who care about this stuff. The point is, some dude is auctioning off a glass that Ashcroft once drank out of … and the contents are included. MORE »

Ohio Attorney General Marc “Hawaiian Pizza” Dann, whose admission of a sex affair with a young staffer last week was the latest in a series of inappropriate Dann sex stories, is under pressure to step down. A lot of pressure. You know how much pressure? This much: “All statewide Democratic elected officials and legislative leaders are calling on embattled Attorney General Marc Dann to resign from office.” And he’s a Democrat too! Dann has heard their calls, and he has responded “No I ain’t goin’ nowhere, lamebots.” MORE »