Eric Holder Confirmation Promises to be Tough Fight

President-elect Barack Obama has already lost one Cabinet appointee, Commerce Secretary nominee Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM), to a potentially contentious confirmation hearing. If some Republicans have their way, he may lose another one. Obama's pick to be Attorney General, former Clinton Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, has come under close scrutiny by the usually moderate Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA). Specter wants Holder to answer for some of the decisions he participated in while the number two man in the Clinton Justice Department. Chief among those questions is Holder's role in the controversial pardons of international fugitive Marc Rich and members of the Puerto Rican terrorist group FALN.

Holder did not help himself last month when he submitted an incomplete questionairre to the Judiciary Committee that omitted, among other things, the fact that he was once appointed by scandal-plagued Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) to serve as counsel to the Illinois Gaming Board. Holder was ultimately not hired for the post out of concern from some board members that he was chosen simply to usher the governor's favored outcomes through the process. Holder also neglected to mention various speeches he had given and articles he had written on controversial subjects such as gun control. Specter noticed the omissions and fired off a terse letter to Holder seeking to have him correct the record in an amended filing.

Republicans see the Hilder confirmation hearings as a springboard with which to build some momentum after consecutive devastating election losses have left them with greatly reduced minorities in Congress. Karl Rove said last month that the Holder hearings would be a chance for Republicans, "to lay down markers," that may help rally the base, as well as take a little of the shine off of the incoming Obama Administration. There are enough questions in Holder's background to accomplish this. And if Holder cannot satisfy Specter, he doesn't stand much of a chance with the rest of the Republican members of the committee. Unless something more dramatic comes up, Holder is certain to be confirmed. But the exercise in Republican unity during the hearings could be just the start the GOP needs on its long climb back to power.