Those who knew Holder
Those who knew Holder during his storybook rise in law and politics, from a junior prosecutor to a trial judge to the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., before becoming deputy attorney general under Bill Clinton, would hardly have predicted his evolution into the liberal reformist attorney general he has become.
Throughout most of his career, he held views that were moderate and conventionally liberal. As a judge meting out tough sentences for a city in the grips of a crack-fueled crime epidemic, he was known as "hold 'em Holder." And as a black lawyer rising through a still mostly white power structure, he wore his racial identity lightly and rarely if ever betrayed personal grievances.
In temperament, Holder was mild and affable; he was hardly a crusader.
But he will leave office at the end of the year with a record of progressive accomplishments that few other Obama cabinet members will likely be able to match. From reforming criminal sentencing to defending the legal rights of those in the LGBT community to forcing voting rights onto the national agenda, Holder can legitimately claim to be the most activist attorney
