WASHINGTON – Attorney general nominee Eric Holder will face daunting challenges as the new head of the Justice Department, but those who know him say he's well suited in temperament and experience to tackle the assignment.
Holder, who stands to be the first black attorney general, will be taking the helm of a department that's still recovering from charges of cronyism and partisan politicking and dubious opinions about the legality of harsh interrogation techniques, electronic eavesdropping, habeas corpus rights and the laws of war.
"Let me be clear," Obama said while introducing Holder on Monday in Chicago. "The attorney general serves the American people. And I have every expectation that Eric will protect our people, uphold the public trust and adhere to our Constitution."
Holder also has made it clear that he plans to steer the department away from the Bush administration's most controversial policies on terrorism, such as jailing detainees at Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba. Yet, he hasn't signaled how he'd go about making those ambitious changes.
"The challenges are going to be monumental," said Guy Lewis, a former Justice Department lawyer in the Clinton and Bush administrations. "Inevitably, the priorities are going to shift dramatically because this will be different administration. But the department is a huge battleship and just moving a few degrees takes Herculean effort."
Similar to the president-elect who picked him, Holder is often described as having a calming effect on those around him, a trait that could serve him well in smoothing over traditionally tense relations between the U.S. attorneys' field offices and the department's Washington headquarters.
The department's standing was hurt last year by revelations that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' aides had screened job applicants based on their political credentials and by allegations that they'd pressured and fired Justice Department lawyers who were overseeing politically sensitive cases.
A former judge, U.S. attorney in Washington and deputy attorney general under former President Bill Clinton, Holder has learned the importance of retaining the department's independence from the White House, former Justice Department officials said.
"He'll be a very a constructive and steady force for a Department of Justice that is suffering from very low morale now," said Phil Heymann, Holder's predecessor as a deputy attorney general under Clinton.
Former colleagues describe Holder as a centrist and strong law-enforcement type who formed close ties to local and state counterparts, but they said it was hard to say whether he will overhaul the Bush administration's approach to domestic terrorism.
"He could just as easy come out and say, 'Given the state of affairs, terrorism is still the number one priority and I'm not changing that,' " Lewis said. "No matter what, he's not going to be caught flat-footed on terrorism."
Call Marisa Taylor, McClatchy Washington Bureau, (202) 383-6164.
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