Attorney General Eric Holder appeared alongside President Obama at the White House Thursday afternoon to confirm his resignation from his six-year position as U.S. attorney general.
Obama led the announcement from the White House's East Room where he praised Holder, the nation's first black attorney general, for his fight against terrorism, public corruption and white-collar crime.
"Eric has done a superb job," said Obama.
"I chose him to serve as attorney general because he believes as I do that justice is not just an abstract theory - it's a living and breathing principle. It's about how our laws interact with our daily lives, it's about whether we can make an honest living, whether we can provide for our families, whether we feel safe in our own communities, and welcome in our own country," said Obama. "Where the words that the founders set to paper 238 years ago apply to every single one of us, and not just some. That's why I made him America's lawyer - the people's lawyer."
Last year Holder was held in contempt of Congress when he refused to turn over documents to Congress relating to an investigation into the Department of Justice's Fast and Furious gun-running program. He was later cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent inspector general's investigation.
Over his career in the Justice Department, Holder served 26 years under six presidents from both parties, and embodied classic liberal positions on many issues, such as "support for more gun control, criticism of America's prison system and a desire to try terrorism suspects in civilian instead of military courts," Reuters said.
Already one of the longest-serving attorneys general ever, Holder agreed to stay in office until a successor is named by Obama, and then confirmed by the Senate. The looming question remains: will that Senate be under Democratic or Republican control?
The timing of the resignation announcement is interesting and perhaps strategic with some pundits suggesting it could be related to Democratic belief that the Republicans are likely to take the Senate in the upcoming midterm elections.
"This may be the last moment he can resign and get in under the wire in a Democratic controlled lame-duck Senate if the Republicans take back the Senate. Harry Reid could then jam him through with those revised rules," the National Review's Jonah Goldberg told Fox News' Jon Scott. "But even if that's the case, if they do it before the election, then you're going to this very awkward moment where everyone gets to make Eric Holder's tenure and whoever is going to replace Holder into an issue going into the final weeks of the election, which could be pretty radioactive given that you'd have to talk about Fast and Furious, IRS stonewalling and investigating James Rosen. I'm not sure that's so good for the president."
Rumored replacements include Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, Solicitor General Don Verrilli, former Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli, California Attorney General Kamala Harris, Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, according to Reuters.
