The New York Times has a new profile out today about Attorney General Eric Holder, detailing how he has become a “partisan lightning rod” and frequent target of conservatives over his pursuance of issues like illegal immigration and gay rights. In the piece, Holder claims that many of his critics are playing “Washington ‘gotcha games,’” viewing him as someone who takes “consistently progressive stands” instead of examining his record and seeing that he takes a more realistic view of law enforcement.

On Face the Nation today, Congressman Darrell Issa updated the public on his latest attempts to investigate the Justice Department for its possible involvement in the ATF “Fast & Furious” gun sting, but was careful not to accuse any of the involved parties of criminal conduct. Bob Schieffer asked Issa to respond to charges that he’s merely “showboating” by issuing subpoenas.

On Wednesday night, Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren paid a visit to the Hill to interview California’s Rep. Darrell Issa (R) about the work he’s been doing looking into “Fast and Furious.” When asked if the Department of Justice was cooperating with him “100 percent,” Issa answered that it was closer to “zero percent.”

In a clear sign the U.K. hacking scandal has indeed landed on this side of the Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal reports Friday the Justice Department “is preparing subpoenas as part of preliminary investigations into News Corp. relating to alleged foreign bribery and alleged hacking of voicemail of Sept. 11 victims, according to a government official.” The WSJ‘s source says subpoenas “would broadly seek relevant information from the company,” which owns the Journal.

In an extra segment taped for the Fox News website, Fox News Sunday continued a panel discussion on the ongoing controversy regarding the “Fast and Furious” operation and what the role of the Justice Department was in the program. As Congress investigates the details of the gun tracking program that resulted in American firearms ending up in the hands of Mexican drug gangs, Brit Hume concluded “this is a real scandal.”

ABC News reports this morning that Justice Department officials have given the green light on criminal charges to be filed against former presidential candidate John Edwards. Citing sources, ABC reports the charges will involve alleged violations of campaign finance laws. The violations involve more than one million dollars in donations to Edwards from wealthy supporters–money allegedly used to cover up an affair with a campaign staffer.

The Associated Press is reporting that the Obama administration has filed suit with BP over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and all the money spent on the clean up effort. The lawsuit from the Justice Department also names eight other companies as defendants.

CNN is reporting that the U.S Justice Department is planning to file a legal challenge over Arizona’s controversial immigration law that has been fodder on cable news channels for the last two months.

It’s just now coming out that officials in the Bush and Obama Justice Departments (unsuccessfully) tried to get the IP addresses of every visitor to Indymedia.us, a left-wing, anticapitalist news site. And they (unsuccessfully) tried to keep the site from telling anyone.

The kicker: Glenn Beck, of all people, may be coming to Indymedia’s defense.