Michael Jordan said it best:

I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

Eric Holder said it a little worse:

My decisions were not always perfect. I made mistakes. I hope that enough of my decisions were correct. But with the benefit of hindsight, I can see my errors clearly and I can tell you how I have learned from them.

The former Clinton-administration Justice-department official up for Attorney General has a political “rap sheet” as long as his arm. The involvement in Bill Clinton’s shady last-minute pardons alone would be enough to disqualify most people. Indeed, Holder himself won’t defend his actions — rather, he admits guilt and apologizes — but is not above trying to use them to his advantage. He makes an interesting argument — “I’ve screwed up plenty, so you don’t have to worry about me making those mistakes again because I learned from these bad experiences!”

On the surface, a bold move. But, really, what other choice does he have?

A similar thing seems to be going on with Obama’s nominated Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner. Here’s a guy who will be in charge of the IRS, and even he can’t keep his own taxes in order. Or keep up with his employees’ immigration status. But he’s highly qualified, because he headed up the New York Federal Reserve Bank… and “supervised” the greatest financial meltdown.

It isn’t just Obama’s nominees either, but other Democrats. In the House of Representatives, the Ways and Means Committee is headed up by Charlie Rangel. The head of the main tax-writing committee is apparently incapable of understanding his own financial situations — the number of rent-controlled apartments in New York he can hold, whether he can claim a “homestead” tax deduction for a DC-area house and still legally represent New York in Congress, whether he can use his Congressional parking spot in the garage to store his classic Mercedes, whether he has to declare rental income on a property in the Caribbean . . .

By today’s standard, Geithner, Holder, and Rangel should be found wanting, and cast aside for their imperfections.