Eric Holder’s racial double standards

By Post Editorial Board

July 14, 2014 | 8:29pm

Attorney General Eric HolderPhoto: EPA

Shortly after Eric Holder was sworn in as our first African-American attorney general, he declared the United States “a nation of cowards” on race.

In an interview this week with ABC, Holder stood by those remarks, and upped the ante. “There’s a certain level of vehemence . . . that’s directed at me and the president,” he said, because both are black.

While recognizing the historic breakthrough represented by Barack Obama’s presidency, Holder added, “I don’t think this is the thing that is a main driver, but for some there’s a racial animus.”

Really? When Americans complain about ObamaCare, worry about the high numbers of Americans who have given up looking for a job or express themselves about a foreign policy going up in flames all over the world, is racial animus behind any of that?

Likewise, when Holder himself was held in contempt for refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas on the Fast & Furious gun-running program, or was attacked for wiretapping journalists, was this motivated by race? Or were people judging Holder by the content of his character?

Yet for a man quick to find racism in criticism of his performance, Holder has been remarkably silent over some truly ugly — and deliberate — outbursts.

Where, for example, was Holder when Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) slandered Clarence Thomas as an “Uncle Tom”? Or when a syndicated liberal cartoonist portrayed Condoleezza Rice as a servile “Gone With The Wind” slave? And another called her a “house [N-word]”?

Or when liberal interest groups demanded Democratic senators squelch Bush judicial nominee Miguel Estrada precisely “because … he is Latino.”

Strikes us Holder wants it both ways: to play the race card against legitimate criticisms of the administration’s policies — while standing by when his liberal allies hurl ugly, undeniable racial invective against conservative blacks or Latinos.