Obama eyes posts for Cleland, Holder

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen

By Christina Bellantoni and Jerry Seper

President-elect Barack Obama is quickly shaping his White House staff and policy - considering former Sen. Max Cleland and Eric H. Holder Jr. for top administration posts and promising governors and world leaders he would pursue an aggressive global-warming plan because "denial is no longer an acceptable response."

The Democratic president-elect has offered the attorney general's post to Mr. Holder, who served as No. 2 in the Justice Department in the Clinton administration.

A source familiar with transition planning said Mr. Cleland, a Vietnam veteran and triple amputee, is under consideration for either secretary of Veterans Affairs or secretary of the Army in an Obama administration, and liberal grass-roots support is building for his selection.

Mr. Cleland, 66, is a hero among many on the left for his Democratic activism since losing his U.S. Senate seat in 2002.

In 2002, the one-term Georgia Democrat was defeated by Republican Saxby Chambliss, who ran an ad reviled by liberals because it used images of Mr. Cleland, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden while claiming the Democrat was weak on homeland security issues.

Reached on his cell phone Tuesday morning, the normally talkative Mr. Cleland would not comment and referred the call to a retired aide, Lynn Kimmerly, who said he has not been contacted by the Obama transition team, adding, "It's all speculation."

The Obama team has strictly warned those under consideration not to speak to the press under any circumstances.

The transition team declined to comment on Mr. Cleland and also would not speak to reports about Mr. Holder, 57, who helped Mr. Obama select Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. as his vice president and is a close adviser. Obama aides have been floating Mr. Holder's name on Capitol Hill to gauge support among Republicans for his candidacy.

Three top Republicans said they had not been contacted by Team Obama, including Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who said it was "too soon" to judge whether he'd vote for him.

"I'd have to take a much closer look at his record and talk to him and think about it," he said, adding the Marc Rich pardon at the end of the Clinton administration "would be a factor to consider."