GOP to Put AG Choice Through the Ringer

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While no one expects the Senate to vote down the confirmation of Covington & Burling partner Eric H. Holder Jr. as the nation’s next attorney general. But key Republican lawmakers are signalling that they do not intend to make it easy.

From Legal Times:

While congressional leaders negotiated behind closed doors over proposed loans to Detroit automakers, several Republicans took the floor Wednesday and Thursday to discuss Covington & Burling’s Eric Holder Jr. They called for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to delay the Jan. 8 confirmation hearing for Holder, who of late has been dogged by his involvement in pardoning fugitive financier Marc Rich in the waning hours of the Clinton administration.

  

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But the comments from Republicans went further. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama questioned Holder’s fitness to be attorney general. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said he wanted to delve into Holder’s career in private practice. Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma threatened to prevent a vote.

The likely motive behind the attacks on Holder is to extract concessions and compromises from the incoming Obama administration.

Holder was a deputy attorney general under Janet Reno in the Clinton Administration. If confirmed, he will be the first African-American attorney general.