Grassley questions Obama's attorney general pick. Hatch supports Holder

[Thrill]

Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley said Wednesday that President-elect Barack Obama's selection of Eric Holder as attorney general threatens his new administration with its first controversy.

Grassley also said that New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is qualified to be secretary of state, but that her ex-president husband's work since leaving the White House could create problems for her confirmation

"I believe it's going to be much more controversial than a new administration ought to try to put forth," said Grassley, R-Ia., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Grassley said Holder's role in advising Clinton on his pardon of Marc Rich, as the president prepared to leave office in 2001, could reflect negatively on the nominee during the committee's confirmation hearings.

"I have vague memories of some of his actions being very, very controversial," Grassley said.

Holder said at the time he was "neutral, leaning toward favorable" on pardoning Rich, a wealthy commodities dealer who had been wanted on charges of tax violations.

The pardon, issued on Clinton's final day in office, sparked controversy in part because Rich's former wife, Denise Rich, had been a major contributor to Clinton's presidential library.

Grassley said he recalled Holder's reputation and skill as a lawyer and federal prosecutor being sterling.

"So, I don't want to knock his credentials, and I tend to have deference to a president on who they might want to appoint," Grassley said.

"But if he's done some things that were strictly political, like in the case of Rich, it might question the judgment he uses, and in turn question the judgment of Obama," Grassley continued.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081120/NEWS09/811200361/-1/BUSINESS04

Then there is Orrin Hatch

Hatch on Holder: 'I Intend to Support Him'

"I think Eric Holder has a reputation and an experience factor that is very much in his favor. I respect the man, and I intend to support him," Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) told reporters in the Capitol.

Hatch called the Rich pardon "one of the embarassments of the Clinton administration's aftermath." But, he added, "the president had an absolute right to do that."

"I'm not going to hold that against ," Hatch said.

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2008/11/hatch-on-holder-i-intend-to-support-him.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. "...skill as a lawyer...sterling." Yup, ask the Chiquita Internat'l execs who paid $1.7 million

to rightwing death squads in Colombia to murder some four thousand union leaders and workers over a seven year period. Holder is a protector of corporate crime--even mass murder. He got them off with a hand-slap (and secrecy--both arranged by the Bushwhacks in cahoots with Holder).

This is a bad, bad, bad, BAD appointment! It couldn't send a worse signal to Latin America, that we don't give a shit about the lives or rights of poor workers. MONEY RULES! The corpo/fascists remain in charge. That may be a given--I am not naive about that. But does Obama have to be so obvious about it? Of all the attorneys in this country--advocates of the rule of law, fighters for human rights, for consumers, for the environment, attorneys with a conscience, including U.S. Attorneys who fought Gonzo/Rove and got fired--he couldn't find someone better than Chiquita's death squad attorney for chief law enforcement officer of the U.S.?!

Not to mention his other ill actions, like the Marc Rich pardon. That's the least of it. You better believe that this is controversial. And I hope that Holder's worst action--Chiquita execs' immunity for mass murder--gets fully exposed, and Holder withdraws.

[Thrill]

2. Leahy disagrees

Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) says forget about the Marc Rich thing, Eric Holder's just fine.

In fact more than fine, Leahy says, he's as good as legendary Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, who served as a Nazi war crimes prosecutor and AG under FDR.

We need an Attorney General, as Attorney General Robert H. Jackson said 68 years ago about the federal prosecutor, “who serves the law and not factional purposes, and who approaches his task with humility.” That is the kind of prosecutor Eric Holder always was and the kind of Attorney General he would be.

He is a public servant who has had broad support on both sides of the aisle. I was pleased to see that the initial reactions of Senator Hatch, Senator Sessions, Senator Coburn, and many others were to acknowledge his public service, integrity and good qualities. Mr. Holder should have the support of Senators from both sides of the aisle if the President-Elect chooses to nominate him.