It looks like President-elect Barack Obama’s found yet another staffer for his administration. Newsweek journalist Michael Isikoff reports that two anonymous sources say Obama has selected Eric Holder as his attorney general. If true, Holder would become the first African American to hold that position.

Holder’s career has spanned a number of presidencies, and even stretched back to Republican Ronald Reagan, who appointed Holder as a District of Columbia Superior Court judge. Obviously Holder made an impression in our nation’s capital, because Democratic president Bill Clinton selected him as his deputy attorney general, which caused him to step down from the Reagan position. Though Obama has reportedly offered Holder the position — and Holder’s allegedly agreed, according to one source — the 57-year-old must now go through the traditional vetting process. And apparently Holder had some misgivings:

The only hesitancy about Holder’s selection was that he himself had reservations about going through a confirmation process that was likely to revive questions about his role in signing off on the controversial pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich. Although there is no evidence that Holder actively pushed the pardon, he was criticized for not raising with the White House the strong objections that some Justice Department lawyers and federal prosecutors in New York had to pardoning [sic] somebody who had fled the country.

According to Isikoff, however, Obama’s transition team doesn’t predict that matter becoming too much of an obstacle for Holder’s ascension. 

Holder, who began as a prosecutor, grew tight with Obama during the election, when the New York City-born Holder campaigned for the future president. He also co-chaired Obama’s vice-presidential selection team with Caroline Kennedy.