George W. Bush’s attorney general Alberto Gonzales had some cringe-inducing performances before Congress. But let’s face it — most of what he was being raked over the coals about (e.g., firing U.S. attorneys who serve at the will of the president) was nonsense drummed up by Democrats who knew a sitting duck when they saw one. Eric Holder’s performance this week was arguably in a class by itself — the extent of his ignorance and the shabbiness of his preparation was all the more appalling given the gravity of the issue.

As Charles Krauthammer notes:

In his congressional testimony Wednesday, Holder was utterly incoherent in trying to explain. In his Nov. 13 news conference, he seemed to be saying that if you attack a civilian target, as in 9/11, you get a civilian trial; a military target like the Cole, and you get a military tribunal. What a perverse moral calculus. Which is the war crime — an attack on defenseless civilians or an attack on a military target such as a warship, an accepted act of war that the United States itself has engaged in countless times?

But at the most basic level, Holder appeared not to have wrestled with the fundamental legal issues at play here. He blithely asserted that a conviction would be best assured in civilian court — but had no reply when Sen. Jon Kyl noted that KSM had already pleaded guilty in a military commission: “How can you be more likely to get a conviction in a (civilian) court than that?” When Sen. Lindsey Graham asked about the last time an enemy combatant was scooped off the battlefield, Holder was stumped. The silence was painful. Didn’t he know? Hadn’t the Justice Department lawyers discussed that this had never been done? And to top it off, Holder was again flummoxed when asked if Osama bin Laden would need to be Mirandized if we finally snatched him. No one at Justice apparently had raised this or any other meaningful hypothetical with Holder. Or maybe his mind was already made up by the time anyone started puzzling through the ramifications of the decision.

It is remarkable, really. The president pretends that he left one of the most critical decisions of his presidency to the lawyers. The lawyers’ boss doesn’t really grasp the legal issues. Next time Obama wants to hide behind Holder’s skirts, he might suggest that his attorney general get up to speed. Otherwise, the American people might get the idea that this is all a lefty ideological lark without regard to national security and without serious legal analysis.