President-elect Barack Obama has reportedly picked a former high-ranking Clinton administration aide to serve as the next attorney general.
Eric Holder, a former US attorney who served as the number two official in the Justice Department under president Bill Clinton, would be the nation’s first black attorney general, the country’s top law enforcement official.
Mr Obama, who ran for president on a platform of change, has raised eyebrows with his heavy focus on officials from the former Clinton administration in his transition team and his consideration of them for his Cabinet.
He has already named Rahm Emanuel, a key Democrat in Congress and a top White House official under Clinton, to serve as his chief of staff.
The expected appointment of Mr Holder, who served on the search committee that settled on Delaware Senator Joe Biden as Obama’s vice-presidential running mate, emerged after the president-elect’s aides began canvassing senators about Mr Holder’s chances for confirmation. The Senate must confirm cabinet secretaries by a simple majority vote.
In particular, the Obama aides questioned whether Mr Holder’s confirmation would be delayed because of his involvement in President Clinton’s end-of-term 2001 pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich.
One person involved in the talks said the Obama team has received some assurances that, while the Rich pardon would come up during Senate hearings, the nomination likely would not be held up.
An Obama official and two Democrats in touch with the transition team confirmed that Mr Holder was Mr Obama’s top choice, but the Obama official said the decision was not final.
Word of Mr Holder’s likely appointment surfaced while Washington was abuzz with reports that Senator Hillary Clinton, the former president’s wife, was at the top of Mr Obama’s list to be the next secretary of state, the top US diplomat.
Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton met at the president-elect’s transition headquarters in Chicago last week.
PA