From [HERE] A couple of weeks ago AFRO Publisher John “Jake” Oliver made his monthly appearance on the, “AFRO First Edition,” radio show. When asked why he believed the GOP is executing a ham-handed witch hunt against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, his answer was succinct.

“He’s Black,” Oliver said.

After a last minute attempt by the White House to avert it failed, a vote of contempt by House Republicans against Holder allegedly connected to the Fast and Furious, Mexican gun-running fiasco seemed all but inevitable. The GOP wants us to believe Holder is being held in contempt for not complying with a subpoena served by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee “investigating” Fast and Furious. That’s the official Republican narrative. But, the GOP persecution of Holder – the first Black Attorney General of the United States – looks, feels, sounds and smells like something a whole lot different.

At the very least, most Capitol Hill observers see the treatment of Holder as pure, super-ugly, presidential election year politics. The Republicans are gleefully dragging the attorney general through the mud hoping a bunch of it clings to the president himself as he fights for four more years. But, many of us feel something visceral when we see what’s happening to Holder. And it’s embodied in Jake Oliver’s analysis, “He’s Black.”

A White colleague – a well-connected D.C. political reporter – told me recently it’s pretty clear the Republicans have had it in for Holder from the beginning.

Why?

Sounds a lot like the now infamous public admission of Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader of the Senate who proclaimed early on that the number one priority of the GOP was to make President Obama a one-term president.

Or the scene depicted in Robert Draper’s book where a gaggle of Republican leaders huddled in secret at some undisclosed location in D.C. the day the president was sworn in and plotted his political demise.

Of course nobody can prove how much of the attack on Holder is directly correlated to his race. But, I argue it’s extremely difficult for his tormenters – despite their protestations – to separate the attorney general from his race. When they see him they see red because they see Black.

Take the recent testimony of Texas Senator John Cornyn against Holder as he seemed to invoke the spirit of the virulent Bull Connor.

“It is more with sorrow than regret and anger that I would say that you leave me no alternative, than to join those who call upon you to resign your office,” said Cornyn who was one of 21 Republicans to vote against Holder’s confirmation in 2009.

Holder’s dispassionate response to Cornyn’s condescending ramble was classic.

“With all due respect senator, there’s so much that’s factually wrong with the premise that you started your statement with. It’s almost breathtaking in its inaccuracy,” Holder said.

But, his confidence and elan in the face of such nonsense is at the core of why some Republicans hate Holder so much.

My friend and colleague Kris Broughton, a political blogger known as, “The Brown Man Thinking Hard,” is also a frequent contributor to “First Edition.” He recently delivered an incredibly incendiary essay on Cornyn’s treatment of Holder titled, “Senator Cornyn, Eric Holder Is Not Your Nigger.”

“Eric Holder is the nation’s top cop. He has more important things to do than come down to Congress every month to indulge your White supremacy fetish,” Broughton wrote.

That’s one of the few lines of Broughton’s essay I can publish because it is so verbally volatile. But, the unadulterated rage expressed in it is symbolic of the frustration so many of us feel; because we see something far beyond politics as usual as we continue to witness the Republican’s treatment of the nation’s first Black attorney general and the nation’s first Black president who appointed him.