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Warning: PG-rated language ahead.

We often wondered how, no matter what was thrown at him, outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder managed to keep his composure through all those oft-contentious congressional hearings. (Well, except maybe for the famous asparagus exchange with GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert last April.)

Now, thanks to a somewhat unusual interview Sunday on MSNBC, we know his technique.

Host Melissa Harris-Perry told Holder her viewers called him The Duck.

The Duck? he responded, smiling and clearly wondering where this was heading.

We say you have a very sort of placid, even way of presenting, but you are just working for justice underneath, she explained, waving her hands as a ducks feet would move. Would you quack for us?she asked.

Holder politely declined. But I like the analogy, he said.

I was born and raised in New York City in the 50s and 60s, he explained, and for an African American guy, the thing was to be cool, you know ... things dont bother you. So on the surface Id like to think that thats the way I appear to be, but youre absolutely right: Those little duck feet are just moving as fast as they can underneath.

I may have been cool in congressional hearings on the outside, Holder added, but I was pissed off a lot of the time, too, you know. And it was a question of trying to rein in those feelings and make sure that, on the outside, I was cool.

A long, tall history

Original post:
A nickname for the seldom-ruffled Eric Holder