system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress by a vote of 255-67. Why does Eric Holder still have a job?
gpt
**Practical Answer** - Contempt of Congress is not automatically disqualifying from government employment, nor does it require one be fired. More importantly, the Attorney general is an extremely important position in statutes and regulations. If Holder were to leave his post---whether he resigned or the President remove him---he would need to be replaced, which requires senate confirmation.   

This replacement process would almost certainly become rapidly bogged down in political fighting.  It would further sap the president of political strength, further paralyze Senate activity, and ultimately gain the president very little, since the administration doesn't have much time remaining.  The political and non-political issues caused by the contempt action do not outweigh the issues that would flow from the replacement process.

**Cynical Answer** - The fight between the political parties has tainted everything they do.  Maybe the Attorney General is a profligate lawbreaker who should be removed but is protected by a foolish or equally profligate president. Maybe Holder is just a convenient target for an angry opposition party pushing normal political and policy disagreements well beyond historical boundaries to win points with an equally angry base. But either way, the system is so poisoned that unless one party can literally force the other side to take some action, no matter how warranted, base politics always wins.

**Systemic Answer** - There is an expectation that Congress and the executive will disagree significantly on major policy initiatives.  Although Contempt of Congress is an important power, automatically removing an executive officer for that contempt would interfere too much with the executives ability to run its own affairs.  

Although executive officials should take Congressional opinion into account, and of course should remove bad actors, we should expect that often the two sides will disagree.  If Holder really did need to be removed, then Congress could do so through impeachment, a higher standard to ensure its existence does cause the problems above.