Or a crony?

And of course, he's another Clinton re-tread who was acting AG and approved including the Marc Rich pardon for Clinton's approval at that time. Then there's his role in the Elian Gonzales kidnapping.

As to the charges of cronyism:

A partner at the D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling, Holder served as co-chief (along with Caroline Kennedy) of Obama's vice-presidential selection process. He also actively campaigned for Obama throughout the year and grew personally close to the president-elect.

There's certainly no question he's a Washington insider:

After serving in the public integrity section of the Justice Department's Criminal Division and later a District of Columbia Superior Court judge, Holder was named by President Clinton as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. He became deputy attorney general in 1997 under Janet Reno and was viewed as a centrist on most law enforcement issues, though he has sharply criticized the secrecy and the expansive views of executive power advanced by the Bush Justice Department.

Don Surber has the appropriate chuckle watching the usual suspects:

The amusing sport of watching lefties say, this is not the Barack Obama I knew.

They are such drama queens.

And spoiled brats as well.

Obama gets practical, they go ballistic.

Firedoglake: "I think I am having an aneurysm. Why in the name of all that is sensible would Barack Obama want a Clinton re-tread as AG? Not just any Clinton re-tread, nope, the brain trust behind the Marc Rich pardon. Do you know how many brilliant, talented lawyers with great judgment he has advising his campaign?"

Jules Crittenden gets to the crux of the pick (and many of the picks so far):

Remember how Obama didn't pick Hillary for veep, and everyone said he was afraid she'd undercut him, he'd have to deal with Bill, all that? This is going to be fun over the next four years, when the going gets ugly and Obama is in the middle of a pack of Clintonistas, trying to figure out who's working for who.

And who is loyal to whom.

The claim of an "outsider" riding in to clean up the mess made by all the "insiders" is also getting pretty frayed around the edges as well

[Crossposted at QandO]