Holder Confirmation Hearing Set for Week of Jan. 5

[babylonsister]

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/transition/2008/12/holder-confirmation-hearing-se.html

Holder Confirmation Hearing Set for Week of Jan. 5

By Coral Davenport | December 8, 2008 2:08 PM


Senate Judiciary chairman Patrick J Leahy told reporters today that he intends to hold a confirmation hearing for Eric H. Holder Jr. to be Attorney General during the week of Jan. 5.

Leahy has said "Eric Holder and I have known each other for so long, we almost talk in shorthand. We send e-mails back and forth. We will work closely together."

Holder is expected to face renewed questions about his role in Clinton's pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich in 2001. Rich's ex-wife, Denise, donated heavily to Democratic causes, including Clinton's presidential library and Hillary Rodham Clinton 's 2000 Senate campaign. Holder signed off on the pardon.

Holder told the House Government Reform Committee in early 2001, "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."

But Leahy has said Clinton, not Holder, bears the responsibility for the Rich pardon.

[Gman]

1. I suspect that 15 days later

pardons will be a very hot topic. Maybe it would be best to wait about 16 days.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Me too. There is only one president at a time. n/t