VIDEO - Walpingate judge to AG Holder: I've got your back

Above is the video of the Vassar College speech this year at which U.S. District Court Judge Richard Roberts and Attorney General Eric Holder traded deep, hearty, extravagant compliments interspersed with much jocularity about their decades of close friendship -- as referenced in today's Washington Times editorial:  .

Of course the "I've got your back" line contained nothing sinister, but instead was in the context of joking around of the sort that old friends would do when they tease each other about knowing each other's secrets.

But the extreme fondness and closeness of the two men only enhances the point of the editorial  --  which is not that Roberts promised to protect Holder's legal positions, but that the two have such a closeness and that Roberts owes so much to Holder's career sponsorship and mentorship that in a case like the Walpin matter it really does raise a question whether unwonted bias could be at work.

No need to watch the whole Holder speech, but it is well worth watching through the 6:45 mark, which is how long it takes before the two men's main focus stops being about how much they like each other.

To read the record of Judge Roberts' dereliction on the Walpin case, and then to read the record of how slipshod his decision was once finally pressured into acting by a higher court, is to immediately be forced to wonder whether this is the right judge for this case.