As you may have heard if you paid attention to a news source yesterday, it looks likely that President-Elect Obama is going to tap Eric Holder for the Attorney General position. Holder will be the first black A.G.. A graduate of Columbia University and Columbia Law School, Holder began his law career working for the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department. He was appointed a Superior Court judge in D.C. by Reagan in 1988. He left that position in 1993 to become the Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno in the Clinton administration.

When Bush Co. took over the White House, Holder returned to practicing law- representing large corporations like Merck and Chiquita at the firm Covington & Burling. Earlier this year, he served as co-chair of Obama’s vice presidential selection committee.

Holder’s fairly progressive on terrorism related issues, as evidenced by a speech he made to the American Constitution Society- pieces of which have been floating around:

“Our needlessly abusive and unlawful practices in the ‘War on Terror’ have diminished our standing in the world community and made us less, rather than more, safe,” Holder told a packed room at the ACS 2008 Convention on Friday evening. “For the sake of our safety and security, and because it is the right thing to do, the next president must move immediately to reclaim America’s standing in the world as a nation that cherishes and protects individual freedom and basic human rights.”

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“We owe the American people a reckoning. It is our responsibility as citizens to preserve and protect our constitution… Let me be clear: I firmly believe that there is evil in the world, and that we still face grave dangers to our security. But our ability to lead the world in combatting these dangers depends not only on the strength of our military leadership but our moral leadership as well. … To recapture it, we can no longer allow ourselves to be ruled by fear. We must evaluate our policies and our practices in the harsh light of day and steel ourselves to face the world’s dangers in accord with the rule of law.” 

There might be some grumblings (on the Democrat side) and uproar (other side) about Holder’s part in the pardon of Mark Rich. There’s not much to it, really. Holder gave a casual opinion on the matter (“neutral leaning towards favorable”) without intending it to be a recommendation. It was more of a mistake of bureaucracy than a deliberate action on Holder’s part. And Mark Rich isn’t nearly as salacious as Scooter Libby so walk carefully, right wing.