WASHINGTON – At the end of last year, with the election decided and the Obama administration in office for four more years, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. considered stepping down. He decided against it, in part because before he left he wanted to move beyond the disputes that had marked his tenure, accomplish some of the goals he had set for the job and leave on his own terms.
If Holder really thought he could escape controversy, the last few weeks have reinforced how inescapable controversy has become for the nation’s chief law-enforcement officer. A furor over leak investigations and the seizure of phone records from reporters at The Associated Press and Fox News have again engulfed the attorney general in allegations, investigations and calls for resignation.
During the course of 4½ years, no other member of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet has been at the center of so many polarizing episodes or the target of so much incoming fire.
While the White House publicly backed Holder as he tried to smooth over the latest uproar amid new speculation about his future, some in the West Wing privately wish he would step down, viewing him as politically maladroit. But the latest attacks may stiffen the administration’s resistance in the near term for fear of emboldening critics.
The White House views the attacks on Holder as a “political agenda” and “would not hasten the departure of someone who’s competent and runs the department and is a friend because there’s a drumbeat,” said William Daley, a former White House chief of staff under Obama. “Whoever Barack Obama puts in there, these people will try to drumbeat him out of there, no matter what.”
But that does not mitigate the frustration of some presidential aides.
“The White House is apoplectic about him, and has been for a long time,” said a Democratic former government official who declined to be identified talking about friends.
White House officials believe that Holder does not manage or foresee problems. “How hard would it be to anticipate that The AP would be unhappy?” the former official said. “And then they haven’t defended their position.”
The president, however, is said to appreciate Holder’s integrity and his positions during some of the big fights over what to do about terrorism and other volatile issues. Moreover, advisers said, Obama after a full term in office is less likely to worry about political flare-ups that will eventually die down.
