NBC news is confirming that President Elect Barack Obama has offered the position of attorney general to Washington attorney, Eric Holder.  Should Holder be confirmed for the position, he would become this country’s first African American to hold the powerful position. 

Holder is no stranger to the political world, having served in the Justice Department during the Clinton administration as deputy attorney general under Janet Reno.  Holder has worked closely with Obama in the last year, having joined the Obama campaign in August 2007 and serving as a trusted advisor to Obama.  Since joining the campaign, Holder has been an instrumental part of the Obama camp, most notably helping to vet V.P. elect Joseph Biden.

Holder is said to be generally well-liked in Washington political circles and rumor has it that Republicans have quietly assured Obama’s team that a Holder nomination would not get caught up in unnecessary delays, which are a concern due to his ties to former President Bill Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich, the wealthy former husband of Clinton contributor Denise Rich.  When asked his thoughts on the opinion (on the last day of Clinton’s term), Holder was quoted as saying he was “nuetral, leaning towards favorable” regarding the pardon, a quote which Clinton later claimed help influence his decision to pardon Rich.

Holder may also run into some opposition for his role in the Elian Gonzalez case back in 2000, in which the young Cuban immigrant was forcefully taken from his maternal family in Miami after arriving to the U.S. with a band of Cuban defectors.  When the boy’s father demanded his return to Cuba, Holder assisted then-attorney general Janet Reno in orchestrating the controversial raid and removal of Elian from his maternal family’s Miami home and his subsequent return to the Cuban nation. 

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