Yes, Virginia,
There is a Santa Claus. Napolitano
not Going to Washington
WASHINGTON DC (By Michael Isikoff,
Newsweek) November 18, 2008 —
President-elect Obama has decided to
tap Eric Holder as his attorney
general, putting the veteran
Washington lawyer in place to become
the first African-American to head
the Justice Department, according to
two legal sources close to the
presidential transition.
Holder, who served as deputy
attorney general during the Clinton
administration, still has to undergo
a formal “vetting” review by the
Obama transition team before the
selection is final and is publicly
announced, said one of the sources,
who asked not to be identified
talking about the transition
process. But in the discussions over
the past few days, Obama offered
Holder the job and he accepted, the
source said. The announcement is not
likely until after Obama announces
his choices to lead the Treasury and
State departments.
Holder, 57, has been on Obama’s
“short list” for attorney general
from the outset. A partner at the
D.C. law firm of Covington &
Burling, Holder served as co-chief
(along with Caroline Kennedy) of
Obama’s vice-presidential selection
process. He also actively campaigned
for Obama throughout the year and
grew personally close to the
president-elect. Holder has not
returned a call seeking comment; the
Obama transition team did not
respond to e-mail messages.
The sources said the Obama
transition team is still debating
over who should serve under Holder
in the key post of deputy attorney
general. One top candidate, favored
by Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel
and other former Clinton White House
officials, is Elena Kagan, dean of
the Harvard Law School and a former
lawyer in the White House counsel’s
office under Clinton. Another top
candidate, favored by other Obama
advisors, is David Ogden, a former
chief of staff to Attorney General
Janet Reno, who is currently heading
Obama’s Justice Department
transition team. Kagan brings legal
policy credentials; Ogden has more
experience in the Justice Department
trenches.
The only hesitancy about Holder’s
selection was that he himself had
reservations about going through a
confirmation process that was likely
to revive questions about his role
in signing off on the controversial
pardon of fugitive financier Marc
Rich. Although there is no evidence
that Holder actively pushed the
pardon, he was criticized for not
raising with the White House the
strong objections that some Justice
Department lawyers and federal
prosecutors in New York had to
pardoning somebody who had fled the
country. But after reviewing the
evidence in the case, and checking
with staffers on the Senate
Judiciary Committee, Obama aides and
Holder both decided the issue was
highly unlikely to prove an obstacle
to his confirmation, one of the
sources said--especially given the
Democrats’ more sizable
post-election majority in the
Senate.
A New York City native who graduated
from Columbia University and
Columbia Law School, Holder spent
years as a federal prosecutor — a
job in which he earned a reputation
as tough and aggressive foe of
public corruption. After serving in
the pubic integrity section of the
Justice Department’s Criminal
Division and later a District of
Columbia Superior Court judge,
Holder was named by President
Clinton as U.S. attorney for the
District of Columbia. He became
deputy attorney general in 1997
under Janet Reno and was viewed as a
centrist on most law enforcement
issues, though he has sharply
criticized the secrecy and the
expansive views of executive power
advanced by the Bush Justice
Department.
