By Debra Saunders,Real Clear Politics
Eric Holder has worked for Rod Blagojevich
Conventional wisdom last week decreed that President-elect Barack Obama had done such a fine job culling his Cabinet that only one pick —Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder —would present a problem,but most likely,a surmountable hurdle.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson —Obama’s presumptive commerce secretary —stepped on that happy tale when he withdrew his name from consideration Sunday in the midst of a federal corruption probe.
Back to Holder.Inside money would bet that Republicans will use Holder’s Jan. 15 Senate confirmation hearing to grill him on his role in President Bill Clinton’s notorious last-day-in-office pardon of fugitive gazillionaire Marc Rich. Rich,you may recall,had been hiding in Switzerland (while his wife had been donating generously to Clinton causes) as he evaded copious charges for fraud,evading more than $48 million in taxes,racketeering and trading oil with Iran in violation of a U.S. embargo. It was then-Deputy Attorney General Holder who gave Clinton cover when he told Clinton that he was “neutral leaning positive”on the Rich request for a presidential pardon.