Obama reportedly Eric Holder picks an attorney general

WASHINGTON — President-elect Obama's transition team has signaled to Eric Holder, a senior official in the Justice Department in the Clinton administration, that he will be chosen as attorney general, but no decision has been made, people involved in the process said Tuesday.

Holder, 57, would be the first African American to serve as the nation's top law-enforcement official. As a top adviser to Obama, he has long been considered the front-runner for the job of attorney general because of his extensive record as a prosecutor and a judge.

Obama's advisers appear to have overcome concerns that Holder's involvement in a presidential-pardon scandal as President Clinton left office in 2001 might cloud his nomination for the job.

The nation's next top law-enforcement officer will inherit significant challenges, including a work force demoralized by allegations of political interference in the Bush years, the vexing issue of how to close the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and whether to open criminal investigations of administration officials who approved harsh interrogation tactics and warrantless-wiretapping programs.

As a former judge and top federal prosecutor in Washington D.C., Holder has extensive experience with the criminal-justice system. He is widely known within the city's legal community and for his philanthropic work on behalf of troubled juveniles. In recent years, he defended corporations as a partner at the Covington & Burling law firm, and he took an active role in the presidential campaign after befriending Obama at a dinner party.

Word that Holder was likely to be nominated as attorney general leaked as Obama began settling on other members of his team and signaling his policy priorities upon taking office.

Obama is set to hire Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office, as the White House budget director, people involved in the transition said. They said the leading candidate for another top post on the economic team, director of the National Economic Council, is Jacob Lew, who was Clinton's budget director.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, under consideration to be secretary of state, was said by an adviser to be torn about giving up her Senate seat. The adviser describes her as "flattered" but "agonizing" over the decision.

In his only public appearance Tuesday, Obama said he intended to move rapidly on one of the most ambitious items on his agenda: tackling climate change. Speaking to a bipartisan group of governors by video, the president-elect said that despite the weakening economy, he had no intention of softening or delaying his aggressive targets for reducing emissions that cause the warming of the planet.

"Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all," Obama said. "Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response."

He repeated his campaign vow to reduce climate-altering carbon-dioxide emissions by 80 percent by 2050 and invest $150 billion in new energy-saving technologies.

Obama said that although he would not attend a U.N.-sponsored meeting on climate change in December, he has asked members of Congress who are going to report back to him on what the United States can do to reassert leadership on global climate policy.

Members of Obama's transition team denied reports that Holder had already been selected as attorney general.

People involved in the transition process, however, said the decision appeared all but certain once the process of vetting Holder is completed. Senate confirmation also is required for the post.

Holder served as a federal prosecutor, a trial-court judge and U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia before becoming the top-ranking aide to Attorney General Janet Reno in 1997. He was regarded as a strong ally for federal prosecutors and helped shape Clinton's program to put 100,000 police officers on the street.

But his last days at the Justice Department in 2001 were marred by his peripheral involvement in Clinton's controversial pardon of the fugitive financier Marc Rich, as Republicans blamed Holder for failing to oppose the pardon and allowing the White House to bypass the normal pardon-review process at the Justice Department.

Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, which reviews nominees for attorney general, said Tuesday that while he had not taken any position on the prospect of Holder as attorney general, his role in the pardon of Rich should be "a factor to consider" in any confirmation.

Information from The Washington Post is included in this report.