President Obama is likely to announce his choice for attorney general as early as Thursday or Friday, right after the election shows how difficult his nominee’s Senate confirmation battle could be, say sources familiar with the matter.
A Republican takeover will make it much harder for the president to jam a radical through the Senate.
Republicans are gearing up for a bruising confirmation fight no matter who Obama chooses to replace Attorney General Eric Holder. The top candidates, including Labor Secretary Tom Perez, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli and U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, would each face high hurdles.
Obama may be considering other contenders as well, sources caution.
If Republicans sweep into power in the upper chamber, Democrats could push to hold the first confirmation hearing in the lame duck session this fall, but the entire process is expected to take seven to eight weeks, with the main Senate deliberations and final vote early next year.
So far the White House is remaining mum on the attorney general pick.
“We don’t have any personnel updates, and are certainly not going to speculate on any decisions before the president makes them,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz told the Washington Examiner Tuesday night.
Others within the Justice Department community are bracing for an announcement late this week and argue that the midterm election’s outcome will inevitably play a role in Obama’s choice.
“A lot will depend on what happens today — who the candidate is,” one source told the Examiner. “It depends on what kind of messaging they want to have, how the president wants to go down in the next two years.”
Other Democratic sources say they are startled by the lack of any White House postelection game plan — for the selection of an attorney general as well as goals for the lame duck session.
If Democrats retain control of the Senate, sources believe Obama is more likely to pick Perez, the most controversial of suggested nominees, because of the lower threat of a contentious confirmation battle.
Perez could still be the choice if Republicans gain control, but his selection would set a combative tone for Obama’s final two years, as well as heavier emphasis on the president’s civil rights legacy. Perez formerly served as head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Solicitor General Donald Verrilli is considered a less “inspiring” choice among Democrats closely watching the process, and his selection would not necessarily avoid a difficult confirmation battle.
Still, Verrilli is close to Obama and is considered a trusted loyalist. In 2012, he told the Washington Post that he would be happy to “do anything at the Department of Justice, including sweeping the floors.”
Republicans would undoubtedly target Verrilli for his defense of Obamacare before the Supreme Court in 2012, as well as the administration’s decision last year not to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act’s prohibition on federal benefits for gay and lesbian couples.
Lynch is also a top contender. She would be the first African-American woman to serve as attorney general, and Holder reportedly encouraged the White House is consider her as his replacement. Her lack of strong ties to Obama, unlike Perez and Verrilli, could help her confirmation.
The No. 2 spot at the Justice Department also will soon be open, with Deputy Attorney General James Cole’s departure. While Perez and Verrilli would likely resist stepping down from their prominent posts to take the deputy attorney general job, Lynch may be willing to do so.
