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Holder's Unlikely Defense

The Boston Globe's Scott Helman has a great article explaining why the GOP has decided to choose Eric Holder as the one Obama cabinet nominee it's going to rough up during the confirmation process. What's most interesting is Holder's planned defense:

An Obama transition official, granted anonymity to address strategy, said that Holder, if challenged on whether in light of the Rich case he can be trusted to display political independence from the president, will cite two high-profile example of him breaking with party leaders.

The first, according to the transition official, was Holder's prosecution, as US attorney for the District of Columbia, of former US representative Dan Rostenkowski, an Illinois Democrat and House Ways and Means Committee chairman who served prison time for misusing taxpayer money. The second, the official said, was Holder's support, while deputy attorney general, of broadening independent counsel Kenneth Starr's investigations into Clinton's activities. [Emphasis added.]

This last bit would seem akin to Hillary Clinton touting her Iraq war vote during her Secretary of State confirmation hearings. But I guess it all depends on what audience you're trying to reach.

--Jason Zengerle