Holder Nomination Approved by Senate Judiciary

By Keith Perine, CQ Staff Keith Perine, Cq Staff Wed Jan 28, 12:57 pm ET

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved the nomination of Eric H. Holder Jr. to be attorney general by a wide, bipartisan vote.

The panel voted 17-2 to recommend that the full Senate confirm Holder. Republicans John Cornyn of Texas and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma voted no.

The full Senate is expected to vote as early as Thursday. "It'll either be tomorrow or Friday," Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., said. "We'd like it to be sooner rather than later," he said, but added that the Senate first must complete action on an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (HR 2).

Durbin said he did not anticipate GOP delaying tactics. "The vote was so strong in committee, I feel good on the floor," he said.

Although the fate of Holder's nomination was never seriously in doubt, committee Republicans had questioned whether he would be politically independent from President Obama. Republicans, led by ranking member Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, had pointed to Holder's involvement, as deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, in controversial pardons Clinton issued in 1999 and 2001.

"Eric Holder is a good man," committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., said. "He's a decent man, he's a public servant committed to the rule of law, and he will be a good attorney general."

Specter said endorsements of Holder by people such as former FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, and the traditional deference the Senate gives presidents in filling Cabinet posts, "overbalances" his misgivings about Holder's role in the Clinton pardons.

"I'm aware of the enormous problems President Obama faces," Specter said. "To the extent there can be cooperation, consistent with my conscience and our responsibilities under separation of powers, checks and balances, I intend to cooperate with President Obama."

Republicans had fretted that Holder's involvement in the clemencies Clinton granted to 16 Puerto Rican separatists in 1999, and his 2001 pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, could mean that he would be too willing to bow to Obama's wishes.

Cornyn said he felt that Holder had not sufficiently explained his role in those matters. Cornyn said that "nothing in Holder's testimony convincingly rebuts the widely held suspicion" that his posture regarding the Rich pardon was "based on the desire to give president Clinton the answer he wanted."

Seasoned Nominee If confirmed, Holder will be the first African-American attorney general. Leahy said that a vote against Holder "would put that senator in the wrong side of history."

Unlike the last several attorneys general, Holder has extensive experience inside the Justice Department, where he prosecuted public corruption straight out of Columbia Law School in 1976.

He has been through the Senate confirmation process three times before. He was named to the District of Columbia Superior Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. President Bill Clinton made him the District's U.S. attorney in 1993. And from 1997 until the end of the Clinton administration, Holder was deputy attorney general.

Since leaving the government, he has been a partner at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Covington and Burling.

After Holder is confirmed, Leahy said he will begin to process Obama's nominations to other senior Justice Department posts.

Specter, who had been Holder's fiercest Senate critic, decided to vote for him after meeting with him privately on Jan. 22, at Leahy's suggestion.

"I think it's been a learning experience for Mr. Holder and for all of us," Specter said.

-- Kathleen Hunter contributed to this story.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20090128/pl_cq_politics/politics3019856_3/print