Eric Holder was the black leader Obama could never be

From his first days on the job, it was clear that Attorney General Eric Holder was unbound by the racial constraints that his boss, President Obama, operated under.
Just weeks after America saw the inauguration of its first black president, Holder gave what has come to be known as his "cowards speech" -- an address that crystallized the now-outgoing attorney general's place as Obama's man/conscience/inner voice on race (the boldface is mine):

Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards. Though race-related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we average Americans simply do not talk enough with each other about race. It is an issue we have never been at ease with, and given our nation’s history, this is in some ways understandable. And yet, if we are to make progress in this area, we must feel comfortable enough with one another and tolerant enough of each other to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us.

Publicly, Obama moved to separate himself from the comments, saying that if he had been advising Holder, "we would have used different language." And in discussing race, Obama has often used different language, or even none at all. Holder, who grew up blocks away from Malcolm X, was the dystopic realist. Obama, who during his first term discussed race in executive orders and speeches less than any other president since 1961, was mostly hope-and-change, appealing to "our better angels." (He rose to fame by declaring there wasn't a white America or a black America.) After Obama stumbled and called out a white police officer for arresting African-American Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates at his home, an All-American beer summit was in order. No hard feelings, right guys?

But even with Obama's silence, and in some ways because of it, Holder has always been up to something else -- both rhetorically and judicially. He has been Obama's go-to man on race, bolstering the civil rights division, unafraid to point to racial disparities. He moved to reform the "mandatory minimum" federal sentencing drug laws, which disproportionately impacted minorities. He sued Alabama over voter identification laws, in a case he ultimately lost in the Supreme Court even as he vowed to keep fighting that fight. Holder also made the case that states should repeal laws prohibiting felons from voting, and he spoke out against so-called "stand your ground" laws after Trayvon Martin's death. As Ferguson, Mo., erupted this summer, it was Holder who met with residents and activists on the ground, recounting his own experiences with racial profiling.

To conservatives, he has been an Obama stand-in, a lightning rod who was slapped with a contempt charge for the "Fast and Furious" gun-running scandal. And in his testimony before House committees, he clearly relished the interplay, demanding respect as an indignant black man, clearly taken aback by his treatment.

He made that especially plain at one hearing, saying: "I don't think I've been always treated with respect. You may not like me, but I am the attorney general."

Holder tangled at a different hearing with Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Tex.), who said that Holder was too casual about being held in contempt of Congress. Holder quickly pushed back; "You don't want to go there, buddy," he said. "You don't want to go there, OK?"