attorney general

The new administration has assumed the awkward position of arguing that the case against John Yoo — whose opinions Obama administration officials have harshly criticized — should be dismissed.

It been nearly sixty days since he was first nominated, but the Senate Judiciary Committee has finally voted 17-2 today to send Eric Holder’s nomination for attorney general to the full Senate for confirmation. A Senate vote is expected this week.
The positive outcome of the vote was expected after the committee’s ranking Republican, Pennsylvania Sen. [...]

Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder’s hard line on interrogation (”waterboarding is torture“) rattled Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and a few minority Senators enough to delay the vote to send Holder’s nomination to the Senate floor.  After all, if waterboarding is torture, and torture is a crime, who’s to say that the Justice Department won’t start prosecuting [...]

The Senate Judiciary Committee vote to send Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder’s confirmation to the full Senate has been postponed after Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.), the ranking minority member, announced that the minority had reached a “unanimous view that there was insufficient time to question Mr. Holder” during a meeting earlier this morning.

Specter’s announcement clearly upset [...]

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s meeting to vote to send Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder’s confirmation to the full Senate is back on.
Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has rescheduled the meeting for 2:30 p.m. The meeting was postponed due to a conflict with a prayer service at the National Cathedral.
We’ll be bringing you updates as it happens.

The meeting to vote on whether to confirm Eric Holder as attorney general, which was supposed to be held this morning, has been postponed. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has not set a new date yet.
As we said last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee is likely to support Holder’s nomination, particularly with both Sen. Orrin [...]

Now that Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder’s confirmation hearings have more or less wrapped up (he still has to answer some questions in writing to a few members of the minority), Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has scheduled a vote Wednesday to send the nomination to the full Senate, the day after President-elect Barack Obama’s [...]

Although Eric Holder has been careful not to say he made a mistake in recommending a pardon for the members of FALN, a Puerto Rican paramilitary group regarded by many as a terrorist organization, he’s used some pretty interesting terminology to walk around it.

Shoring up Sen. Patrick Leahy’s (D-Vt.) claim that Eric Holder’s nomination for attorney general has “bipartisan support,” former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) is speaking on behalf of Holder’s confirmation.
Anticipating the minority’s objections, Warner stressed Holder’s learned from past “misjudgments” and discussed his ample experience, mentioning his appointment by former President Ronald Reagan as a district [...]

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the minority and majority leaders in the Senate Judiciary Committee, have opened the hearings for the confirmation of Eric Holder to attorney general, setting what is an expected tone for the day.
Their opening statements are pretty predictable so far: Leahy has harped on the mess that [...]