Senate Committee Vote on Holder's Nomination as AG is Delayed a Week
A planned vote today by the Senate Judiciary Committee on whether to support Eric Holder’s nomination as U.S. attorney general has been delayed for a week at the request of Republican members.
Describing today’s committee meeting as “rancorous,” CNN says that committee chair Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), was “clearly agitated” as he “slammed his gavel and walked out after acknowledging that Republicans had the right to ask for the (automatic) delay.”
The ranking Republican member of the committee, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said there are a number of areas in which he would like to question Holder, including, according to the Blog of Legal Times, his views on national security, detainee policies and investigating corporate fraud. “He also said that former Bush adviser Frances Townsend disclosed in written testimony that she called Holder on the morning of Jan. 20, 2001, about a possible pardon for fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich—what Specter described as a previously undisclosed conversation,” the BLT recounts.
Another issue is pointed out by the Politico as central to the situation: “Holder declared that ‘waterboarding is torture’ during last week’s session in the Judiciary Committee. That statement raises the possibility that the government agents who used the method, which simulates drowning, could be prosecuted.”
Despite these issues, Holder is still believed likely to be confirmed, reports the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.).
Until a new attorney general is confirmed, Mark Filip, a former federal judge who had been second in command at the department, takes over temporarily as acting attorney general, as an earlier ABAJournal.com post notes.
Hat tip: Political Hotsheet (CBS News).
