Obama then and now: Confirming an attorney general

As the Senate Judiciary Committee grills Attorney General nominee Eric Holder, it is telling to take a look at how then-Sen. Barack Obama approached his votes on Cabinet nominees four years ago.

Obama opposed Alberto Gonzales, President Bush's choice for the nation's top law enforcement job, even as he supported the confirmation of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of State -- an endorsement that put him at odds with his Illinois colleague, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, as well as some liberal activists.

In an interview with National Journal in 2006, Obama set out his rationale for those two votes. He backed Rice even though she had supported what he had referred to as the "dumb war" in Iraq, because, Obama said, "It was my judgment that the president has broad discretion to choose his executive team." She was confirmed 85-13.

But he said he used a different set of criteria for his vote on Gonzales. "I took a different tack when it came to the attorney general because I think the attorney general's job actually is to be the people's lawyer -- to tell the president what the law is and what he can't do and, based on some of the memos related to torture that I have seen from Alberto Gonzales, it didn't appear that he could say no to the president," Obama said in the interview.

Despite Obama's opposition, Gonzales was confirmed, 60-36, to become the first Hispanic attorney general. He resigned in 2007 amid charges that he had politicized the Justice Department and unfairly fired nine U.S. attorneys.

Ironically, some of the same questions that Obama raised about Gonzales are being raised about Holder Friday by Republicans who question whether he will exercise independence and follow the law wherever it leads -- even if it means being at odds with his friend, the president. Republicans asked about his role as deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration when the president pardoned fugitive financier Marc Rich and commuted the sentences of 16 Puerto Rican militants who had been convicted on sedition and weapons charges. Why had he not challenged the president?

Holder acknowledged some missteps. "My decisions were not always perfect," he said. "I made mistakes.... But with the benefit of hindsight, I can see my errors clearly, and I can tell you how I have learned from them." He also tried to reassure the skeptics at the hearing, saying that the Justice Department represents "not any one president, not any political party, but the people of this great country."

No senator has voiced opposition to Holder's confirmation at this point. Given the Democrats' majority on the committee and barring any unforeseen developments, Holder is expected to win the panel's approval and go on to be confirmed as the nation's first African-American attorney general.

Check out the blog Lost in Transition, a joint effort of Government Executive and National Journal.