Eric Holder: The New USAG?
Newsweek is reporting that Covington & Burling partner Eric Holder will be picked as the new U.S. Attorney General:
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 would become the first African-American to head the Department of Justice.
Holder received his B.A. and J.D. from Columbia. Obama's transition team is still debating Holder's deputy:
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.
Will Holder depoliticize the DOJ? We hope that is near the top of his agenda.
Obama's Attorney General [Newsweek]
Newsweek: Holder is Next Attorney General [The BLT: Blog of the Legal Times]
Earlier: Legal Stars of the New Administration
Lawyers Poised To Rule The World
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Comments
I AM FIRST!!!! FIRST TIME EVER!!! FIRSTY, FIRSTY, FIRSTY!!!
first..not that anyone cares not that bar results are out
CLS! CLS! CLS! CLS!!!
He looks like the late great Richard Pryor. Would be hilarious if he also had the same temperament.
Is today CLS day at ATL?
I know they are the best law school in the world, but come on give the TTTs some time in the spotlight
Wow, Obama is picking all these people from Clinton's term...that's REAL change...how about someone who has not worked in a prior administration....
3/5 = NYU student pretending to be CLS student in order to make CLS students sound like jackasses.
US Executive branch? White men need not apply.
that's right #8. and i LOVE it.
#8 is a douchebag
Marc Rich to SEC !
"VET" is so overused these days.
#8: the first Hispanic AG was a success; time to see how the first African-American AG works out.
Did anyone read the typo in the Newsweek article? "... [S}erving in the pubic integrity section of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division". pretty bad
#8 - WAAAAAAAA, why do I have to be an associate for life???? I have pretty blue eyes and, on that basis, deserve to lord over others
#13 - Alberto Gonzalez was the w-o-r-s-t AG ever. Politicized the DOJ, gave two farts to the wind about justice, condoned torture.... the list goes on and on
#15, sarcasm much?
Pubic integrity is very important.
CHANGE we can believe in and predict!!!
Hey 8, you think Holder is unqualified? If so, please avoid operating heavy machinery.
zimbabwe is ruled well
Can Elie be AG and ATL blogmaster at the same time?
no one cares what you think, mystal
the only reason i, and i'm sure many others, still even read this blog is in the faint hope that lat will pull his head out from the ground and realize what a horrible writer you are and fire you before this whole blog continues down this degenerative path.
I hope Kagan gets the second string at the dept. CLS is going to make Harvard our bitches... its finally coming.
haha
You idiots who keep impugning the "change" mantra on the basis of Obama nominating former Clinton appointees are driving me nuts. The Bush Administration was full of politically crass dumbasses whose incompetence is what pushed the "change" wave so far in Obama's favor. Before that was Clinton's administration, which wasn't nearly as political (even if it was somewhat). Going back any further puts you into a pool of Bush I and Reagan appointees who must be rounding out their late 60's and 70's by now. Who else is he supposed to choose? Monica Goodling's hires?? Show me a pool of highly talented, experienced administrators with no political leanings or preferences, please.
Besides, the "change" mantra has to do with the tone of rhetoric and competition - Obama never promised not to be a Democrat.
You're all a bunch of sore losers. Shut up and watch what happens when people are chosen based on experience and not whether they think George Bush is great or super great.
"Before that was Clinton's administration, which wasn't nearly as political"
Total loss of credibility? Check.
What I don't understand is how experience as the GC at a coat factory will help as AG...
24: Clinton had no Monica Goodling scandal. His Presidency didn't see a terrorist threat every time the political opposition spoke out, and his party didn't call people terrorists every time they disagreed with his policies. Loss of credibility my butt. -23.
24: Clinton had no Monica Goodling scandal. His Presidency didn't see a rise in the terrorist threat level every time the political opposition spoke out, and his party didn't call people terrorists every time they disagreed with his policies. Loss of credibility my butt. -23.
He never promised not to be a Democrat; he did promise to bring change to Washington. I guess I was just thinking that meant something different, not something that's already been done... not people who are Washington insiders. Silly, naive me.
^ When did Palin start posting here?
Hell, let's just bring the entire NAACP into the cabinet.
Spot on 28. Plenty of highly educated, intelligent and effective people out there that did not work in a prior administration.
So our SecState will be fmr. Pres' wife
AG - fmr. Clinton Deputy AG
SecTreas - let it be Geithner but will probably be Vockler or Summers
SecDef - Chuck Hagel would show change - but I'll bet good money it's a former clinton admin person
Not surprising that it will be peppered with Clinton people since Podesta is running the transition.
24: Clinton had no Monica Goodling scandal. His Presidency didn't see a rise in the terrorist threat level every time the political opposition spoke out, and his party didn't call people terrorists every time they disagreed with his policies. Loss of credibility my butt. -23.
You guys hating on anyone who had anything to do with Clinton kill me. Clinton was the only Democratic president in the last 28 years. The only Democrats with any experience who aren't ancient had to get their experience in the Clinton administration. Just because people worked in that administration, it doesn't mean they're in the Clinton camp. It means they used to have a goverment job. Give it a rest already.
w00t! a stuyvesant hs grad!
I claim first to call BS on Holder depoliticizing the USAG's office. This guy was busy throwing every monkey wrench into Ken Starr's independent investigation - authorized by USAG - when he served under Reno. He's nakedly political.
I claim first to call BS on Holder depoliticizing the USAG's office. This guy was busy throwing every monkey wrench into Ken Starr's independent investigation - authorized by USAG - when he served under Reno. He's nakedly political.
I claim first to call BS on Holder depoliticizing the USAG's office. This guy was busy throwing every monkey wrench into Ken Starr's independent investigation - authorized by USAG - when he served under Reno. He's nakedly political.
I claim first to call BS on Holder depoliticizing the USAG's office. This guy was busy throwing every monkey wrench into Ken Starr's independent investigation - authorized by USAG - when he served under Reno. He's nakedly political.
Oops. Sorry for 36 and 37. My firm skimped on the Internet connection.
23, 33 - the point is obama keeps preaching change but now he keeps appointing clinton people to be in his administration. why do you have to have any experience in a prior administration? Aren't there plenty of smart, educated people who deserve consideration for posts in obama's administration that didn't serve in clinton's administration? wouldn't this give obama's change mantra more credibility?? He says he wants change yet every person he is appointing are prior clinton-ites, where is the change in that?
@34
Gotta root for Kagan, as she's from Hunter.
Stuy is nice and all, but it's no Brick Prison.
As a Republican, I don't mind seeing the old Clinton crowd repopulate the Executive Branch, especially compared to some of the far left folks the President-elect could choose. If under the new Administration we have post-2004 Clinton-type policies (e.g., Nafta, welfare reform, DOMA, etc) without the drama (e.g, the President keeps his joint in his pants, doesn't commit perjury, etc), that is about as much as my side could hope for.
Will Elie ever write a post without blatant partisan hackery involved?
We hope that is near the top of his agenda.
As a Republican, I don't mind seeing the old Clinton crowd repopulate the Executive Branch, especially compared to some of the far left folks the President-elect could choose. If under the new Administration we have post-2004 Clinton-type policies (e.g., Nafta, welfare reform, DOMA, etc) without the drama (e.g, the President keeps his joint in his pants, doesn't commit perjury, etc), that is about as much as my side could hope for.
As a Republican, I don't mind seeing the old Clinton crowd repopulate the Executive Branch, especially compared to some of the far left folks the President-elect could choose. If under the new Administration we have post-2004 Clinton-type policies (e.g., Nafta, welfare reform, DOMA, etc) without the drama (e.g, the President keeps his joint in his pants, doesn't commit perjury, etc), that is about as much as my side could hope for.
The moment Covington associates have been waiting for for nearly a year. Will there be anyone left to do any work at C&B once Holder cherry picks 150 of the best associates?
The change Obama speaks of is primarily a change from the last 8 years. Appointing people who served in Clinton's administration does not undermine this position at all. He is taking people that have experience in a successful democratic administration, but they will ultimately work under his iniatives and will move in the direction he wants the country to go. This is the same ineffective argument that bitter republicans asserted when Obama selected Biden....."where is the change, where is the change." I'll tell you where the change is, take a look at election day, the voter turn out, the worldwide media coverage. You saw change right there, change in the process. Get over it.
Nice last line Mystal. Good work today.
Good god, I hope Obama does not make HRC the Sec of State. Do we really need any more of the Clintons? They're like the Beverly Hillbillies of politics.
big up to nyc public school system, 34 & 41
#8. Yes. It is about time.
More pardons for financial criminals and terrorists!
More pardons for financial criminals and terrorists!
once again proving that CLS is better than harvard or stanford. i hope US news takes this into account when they do their next rankings. WHAT BITCHES?
Not to mention Obama also graduated from Columbia (albeit the undergrad).
DAMN IT FEELS GOOD TO BE A GANGSTA
54 & 55 = pasty, antisocial dork who finds refuge from an uncomfortable world in the vast corners of the internets
Hunter? College? A CUNY grad on the Supreme Court! That would make my day.
Holder is qualified, but his moustache is not. Very late '70s. You call that progressive?
Is the life after high school? Holder and Axelrod went to Stuyvesant.
See
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/eric-holder/