White House officials informed Holder on Tuesday evening that Clinton wanted him to replace Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, who announced her resignation in January, administration sources familiar with the deliberations said. The White House is expected to announce the decision as early as today or Friday, the sources said. A spokesperson for Holder's office declined to comment.
As the District's top law-enforcement officer and a one-time D.C. Superior Court judge, Holder has been mentioned by some as a possible mayoral candidate. He had made strengthening his office's ties to city neighborhoods a priority, spending several nights a week at community meetings and urging many of his prosecutors to do the same.
But Holder, who publicly expressed reservations about entering city politics, said his outreach efforts were necessary to build the community's trust.
In the process, the GOP lawmakers opened old wounds about Vietnam and the Cold War, and seemed intent on placing Lake's personal politics on trial.
In a particularly tense exchange with Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla), a leading conservative on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Lake was asked whether he had ever publicly protested the Vietnam War.
Lake replied that he only watched one demonstration from the sidelines. Inhofe also asked about Lake's decision to resign in protest from the White House's National Security Council during the Nixon administration. Lake said he did so in response to his opposition to the U.S. incursion into Cambodia during the Vietnam War.
Inhofe then read Lake a list of controversial national security policies during the Reagan administration - ranging from the Star Wars missile defense to covert action to arm the Nicaraguan Contras - and was asked whether he supported or opposed them.
But Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater is playing down the change.
Slater said that while the bill does give states permission to charge tolls on existing sections of the interstate system it is only "a modest change" from previous policy.