Holder Stats
Eric Holder, 57, would be the first African American to serve in the nation's top legal job. His bio info:
-- 1997, Appointed by President Clinton to serve as Deputy Attorney General
-- 1993, Appointed by President Clinton to serve as United States Attorney for the District of Columbia
-- 1988, nominated by President Reagan to become an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia
-- A New York City native, Holder graduated from Columbia College in 1973 and Columbia Law School in 1976.
** Though it's unlikely Holder will meet much confirmation trouble, note that he did sign off on President Clinton's 11th hour pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich. Here's Holder in February 2001on PBS' NewsHour explaining his role:
"In hindsight, I wish I had done some things differently with regard to the Marc Rich matter -- specifically I wish I had ensured that the Department of Justice was more fully informed and involved in this pardon process but let me be very clear, very clear, about one important fact. Efforts to portray me as intimately involved or overly interested in this matter are simply at odds with the facts -- in truth because the Marc Rich case did not stand out as one that was particularly merit or use and because there was a very large number of cases across my desk that fit into this category I never devoted a great deal of time to this matter; I and others at the Justice Department had nothing to gain or to lose by the decision in this matter. We had no professional, personal or financial relationship with Mr. Rich or anyone connected to him. And to the best of my knowledge, none of us ever saw the Rich pardon application. Indeed it is now clear-- and this is admittedly hindsight-- that we at the Justice Department and more importantly former President Clinton, the American public in the cause of justice would have been better served if the case had been handled through the normal channels."
In otherwords, he was "bamboozled and hoodwinked".