https://twitter.com/DRUDGE_REPORT/status/515168225722523648
Eric Holder To Step Down As Attorney General

Eric Holder Jr., the nation’s first black U.S. attorney general, is preparing to announce his resignation Thursday after a tumultuous tenure marked by civil rights advances, national security threats, reforms to the criminal justice system and 5 1/2 years of fights with Republicans in Congress.
Two sources familiar with the decision tell NPR that Holder, 63, intends to leave the Justice Department as soon as his successor is confirmed, a process that could run through 2014 and even into next year. A former U.S. government official says Holder has been increasingly “adamant” about his desire to leave soon for fear that he otherwise could be locked in to stay for much of the rest of President Obama’s second term.

As pointed out by the New York Times his resignation will put an emphasis on the Senate’s confirmation of his successor.

Under changes in Senate rules, administration nominees need only a majority of votes to clear procedural hurdles, preventing Republicans from blocking an attorney general pick by denying the 60 votes usually needed to overcome a filibuster. However, any nominee selected by the president must still go through a rigorous vetting process and a series of confirmation hearings, a time-consuming and politically charged process, given issues such as immigration and terrorism that fall under the purview of the Justice Department.

If President Obama wants a lame-duck confirmation, one congressional official said, the White House will need to move quickly on a nominee and have one named before the midterm election. But a top Republican noted that that route posed risks of its own, since Democratic Senate candidates would then be forced to weigh in on the president’s choice.

The situation illustrated anew what is at stake for the White House and the two parties in the battle for the Senate.