Specter unsure after Holder meeting

WASHINGTON - Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) said after meeting privately yesterday with Eric H. Holder Jr., President Obama's choice for attorney general, that it was too early to tell whether their discussion would assuage Republican reservations about the nominee.

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have expressed concern that Holder might prosecute Bush administration officials for using harsh interrogation techniques on suspected terrorist detainees.

Holder met for about an hour with Specter, the ranking Judiciary Republican, one day after GOP members of the committee forced a one-week delay in a vote on approving his nomination.

Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) raised the issue of possible prosecutions of intelligence agents after Holder, during his confirmation hearing last week, declared that waterboarding - simulated drowning during interrogation - is torture.

Republicans had other questions, including about Holder's role in controversial pardons as the No. 2 Justice Department official under President Bill Clinton, and Specter requested the delay to give them more time to get answers.

"Those hearings were hurried," Specter said in an interview after yesterday's meeting on Capitol Hill. He said he would discuss the meeting with his fellow Judiciary Republicans. "I've got to discuss it with some of the guys," he said.

On Cornyn's concern about prosecution of those engaged in interrogation, Holder "did say it would depend on the specific facts of the case," Specter said, including whether there was a "reliable and authoritative" Justice Department opinion authorizing the actions taken.

Specter said he discussed with Holder the need to more aggressively prosecute fraud that contributed to the financial meltdown, such as misrepresenting the value of corporate assets. "The Justice Department has been taking insufficient settlements in those cases," he said.

Holder declined to comment on the meeting.

Holder, 58, who would be the first black attorney general, has inspired more controversy than any of Obama's other nominees. A number of senators have said they were troubled by Holder's role in the pardon of fugitive businessman Marc Rich on Clinton's last day in office in 2001.

The Senate is expected ultimately to confirm Holder, who has also been a federal judge and prosecutor. Several Republicans have said they would vote for him.

At a hearing Wednesday at which the Judiciary Committee agreed to postpone a vote on Holder, Specter made clear he was speaking for the other Republican members in asking for the delay, though he said he, too, still had questions. But he said he was "reluctant to say or do anything which would delay the reorganization of the Department of Justice."

Specter declined yesterday to say how he would vote on Holder, but he said Wednesday that he would ask the nominee questions in the private meeting "with a view toward getting him confirmed."

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D., Vt.), the Judiciary chairman, said he was bitterly disappointed that Republicans had exercised their right to get an automatic one-week delay. Leahy said Wednesday that Holder "is the most qualified person in decades" to be nominated for the job.