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How Close Did Holder Come to Losing His Job?

By Mary Jacoby

Attorney General Eric Holder was close to being ousted last year, former White House Counsel Greg Craig indicated in private remarks that were inadvertently caught on an open microphone.

?The great thing about it, if Rahm goes to run for mayor, is that Eric survived,? Craig said before a Sept. 21 talk at Columbia Law School, according to an audio recording obtained by the National Law Journal. Later, during a public portion of the talk, Craig said of Holder: “They were after him.”

Rahm, of course is White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who is reported to be considering running for mayor in his hometown of Chicago.

A hard-nosed political veteran who served in the U.S. House and the Clinton White House, Emanuel clashed with Craig and Holder repeatedly on national security issues.

Emanuel eventually pushed Craig out of his White House job, angry about his handling of issues from the botched plan to close the military facility at Guantanamo Bay to his support for release of graphic Bush-era legal memos justifying harsh interrogation techniques against terrorism suspects.

Craig and Holder were allies in those battles, arguing for the legal and constitutional principles behind their policy decisions. Emanuel reportedly thought the decisions were bad politics.

Holder also lost favor after announcing last November that alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be tried in federal court in New York City. The plan generated a bipartisan outcry, and the White House overruled it. Mohammed’s fate remains in limbo.

And let’s not forget the thoughtful speech on race relations that Holder gave in February 2009. Unfortunately for the Attorney General, only one incendiary sound bite got picked up from it – that the U.S. is a “nation of cowards” when it comes to speaking frankly about race.

President Barack Obama chided Holder for the remark, though the two remain personal friends and continue to socialize.

Craig, meanwhile, declined to comment to the NLJ on the exchange. ?I don?t remember that conversation, and even if it occurred, it was off the record,? he said.

Full post as published by Main Justice on September 27, 2010 (boomark / email).