Holder to be Named AG

President-elect Barack Obama has appointed Eric Holder to be the new Attorney General. Holder served as Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Administration. He was also part of Obama's search committee for his V-P selection.

If approved by the Senate, Holder would become the first African-American to serve as AG. Holder did make the recommendation that Marc Rich be pardoned in the dying days of the Clinton Administration. That will raise some questions in the Senate Judiciary Committee but it won't be enough to block his nomination.

The Holder appointment is disappointing in one other respect. It means Deval Patrick stays in the Governor's Office here in Massachusetts.