Attorney General Holder can't say if "radical Islam" influences terrorists

While appearing before the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder had great difficulty with a question posed by committee ranking member Lamar Smith (R-Texas).

Michael Barone has a theory for why some on the left have such difficulty making the connection between "radical Islam" and terrorism. Barone presents his theory in his column that appears in the Washington Examiner:

If you want to watch someone squirm, take a look at the two-minute videotape of Attorney General Eric Holder dodging Republican Rep. Lamar Smith's question whether "radical Islam" motivated the Times Square bomber.

Holder, who last year called America "a nation of cowards" for refusing to talk frankly about race, plainly didn't want to say what is plain to everyone else, that Faisal Shahzad, back from five months in Waziristan, launched his terror attack because of his Islamist beliefs.