Yes, they are all racists.

WASHINGTON — Conservative Democrats on Thursday began to desert Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. prior to a historic vote to hold him in contempt of Congress, as Republicans upped the ante by deciding to move toward taking Holder to court themselves if he doesn’t hand over 1,500 pages of documents concerning a failed gun-tracking operation.

House vote-counters predicted that somewhere between 20 and 31 Democrats would desert their party largely because the influential National Rifle Assn. threatened to oppose legislators who support the attorney general.

The House scheduled several hours of debate Thursday before it votes on whether Holder, one of President Obama’s closest and most trusted Cabinet allies, should be held in contempt.

It would be the first time a sitting member of the Cabinet has been held in contempt.