Speculation narrows on Holder replacement

Less than a week since Attorney General Eric Holder’s resignation was announced, internal speculation at the White House and Justice Department around his replacement has already narrowed to three names: former White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler, Labor Secretary Tom Perez and Solicitor General Donald Verrilli.

The decision will signify what President Barack Obama wants his attorney general to prioritize — and what he wants his own legal legacy to be — for the remainder of the administration. In the midst of the president stepping up America’s military approach to terrorism, national security considerations will be central to the nomination.

But the next attorney general will also be trusted with key parts of Obama’s domestic agenda: defending potential executive actions on immigration, trying to restore the Voting Rights Act and surmounting the legal hurdles to implementing Obamacare.

(Also on POLITICO: Why Perez is being eyed for attorney general)

Ruemmler is seen by officials as one who’d lead administration efforts to complete what President Barack Obama and Holder have long identified as top items of unfinished business, from sentencing reform to closing Guantánamo Bay. She’s already had a hand in these matters for years from her White House perch and might be better able to cut deals on Capitol Hill than Perez, who didn’t pick up a single Republican vote in the Senate when he was confirmed to the Cabinet last year.

Choosing Perez would be a message the president is putting even more emphasis on the civil rights enforcement that both Obama and Holder have prioritized. Perez is also hands down the most dynamic figure of the three and could be useful to an administration seeking to rev up its political base.

Verrilli would deliver instant gravitas and steady leadership, offering a solid, if somewhat unexciting, hand at the helm at DOJ for Obama’s final two years in office.

Other possibilities haven’t been ruled out entirely, including Jenny Durkan, who recently left her post as a U.S. attorney in Washington State and would be the first openly LGBT member of the Cabinet, and Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in New York who’s established himself as a leader on prosecuting financial crimes and political corruption.

(Also on POLITICO: Eric Holder: D.C. deserves voting rights)

The speed that the White House would need to get Holder’s replacement confirmed in a lame-duck session — which remains the current expectation of Obama aides — may also prove a major factor. Typically, hearings take place at least a month after a nomination, and there tends to be at least another three weeks before a committee vote.

Here’s POLITICO’s rundown on the lawyers who’ve emerged as the top three:

Ruemmler

No doubt, Kathy Ruemmler’s strong suit coming in would be the fact she was central to Obama’s national security decisions during her three years in the White House. A mostly behind-the-scenes player at the White House, Ruemmler clocked performances during several speeches while serving as counsel and appearances on the Sunday shows, which made a good impression in the West Wing.

“The national security piece of the job over the last 13 years has become a huge and significant part of the job. Clearly, that’s part of the potential strength Kathy brings to this,” said a former White House official who requested anonymity.

(Also on POLITICO: Karl Rove: 'Good riddance' to Eric Holder)

“What staff can’t do is take your place at that table in the Situation Room,” one former Justice Department official said. “You need to have thought through and be able to represent all the issues about law-of-war detention, about putting someone on a ship versus keeping them in a foreign country versus sending them to Guantánamo. It’s not an absolute prerequisite, but I would think it would be a huge advantage to have that kind of expertise.”

An AG without that familiarity could prompt concern among some DOJ lawyers about ceding turf to other parts of the government, the ex-official added.

If Obama does tap Ruemmler, expect to hear a lot from Republicans about Alberto Gonzales and how when President George W. Bush picked his White House counsel for attorney general, then-Sen. Obama voted against the nominee on the grounds that he wasn’t independent enough of the president.

“Although [Gonzales] seemed to be a capable attorney, he seemed to conceive his role as being the president’s attorney instead of being the people’s attorney,” Obama complained to CNN’s Larry King in March 2005. “Part of the role of the attorney general is to say to the executive branch: ‘Here are the limits of your power. Here are the five things you can’t do.’ I don’t think Alberto Gonzales ever told the president that there was something he could not do.”

Ruemmler would likely counter that criticism by pointing to her prosecutorial experience as well as her time at DOJ — and to the fact that, unlike Gonzales, she did not come to the White House as a friend of the president.

Another potential trouble spot: Republicans could use her confirmation hearing to press for details on her advice to the president on handling high-profile issues, including such conservative shibboleths as Operation Fast and Furious and Benghazi.

“She was one of the president’s closest advisers during that period,” said Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “The White House counsel is an easy target. [Republicans] are going to want to know what she was advising the president about and talking to the president about on Fast and Furious.”

Ruemmler’s résumé also includes being a top prosecutor on the Enron case, Sloan noted. “There have been concerns about Holder not taking financial crimes seriously enough. She would be somebody who, because of her work on Enron, might be able to suggest she would move in that direction.”

Ruemmler seems to have already secured tentative support from Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas). “I had at least a good working e...