Prompt action sought on next AG

The White House suggested it expected the Senate to confirm a replacement for Attorney General Eric Holder during the post-election lame-duck session of Congress, before a new Senate is sworn in next January. Holder announced his resignation Thursday.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest listed two other recent examples of nominees making it through in even more condensed timelines – Robert Gates’ nomination as secretary of defense in 2006 and Michael Mukasey’s nomination for attorney general the following year.

“The president will make the case that the work of the attorney general is so important that the United States Senate should act promptly and in bipartisan fashion to confirm his nominee. That is a case that I think is easily made by this president in the same way that it was made by not just his immediate predecessor but by many of his predecessors,” Earnest said.

President Barack Obama is expected to name his choice within the next couple of weeks.