By Seth Stern and Keith Perine, CQ Staff

Democrats welcomed reports Tuesday that President-elect Barack Obama is likely to nominate Eric H. Holder Jr. as attorney general in his administration.

Holder, a partner at the Washington firm of Covington & Burling, was deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration.

Holder should have support from “both sides of the aisle” in the Senate if Obama nominates him, said Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy , D-Vt.

“The next attorney general will confront many continuing challenges and can do much to restore our commitment to the rule of law,” Leahy said. While the transition office did not confirm the reports, Senate Democrats expect whomever Obama nominates to review Justice Department policies and cooperate with congressional oversight.

House Judiciary Democrats also praised Holder. Alabama’s Artur Davis said Holder “is an excellent pick. I think he will be one of the all-stars of the Cabinet.”

Holder has extensive experience at the Justice Department, where he prosecuted public corruption straight out of Columbia Law School in 1976. He was named to the D.C. Superior Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1988.

President Bill Clinton made him D.C.’s U.S. attorney in 1993. From 1997 until the end of the Clinton administration, Holder served as second-in-command at the Justice Department.

Holder could face renewed questions about his role in Clinton’s pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich in 2001. Rich’s ex-wife donated heavily to Democratic causes, including Clinton’s presidential library and Hillary Rodham Clinton ’s 2000 Senate campaign. Holder signed off on the pardon.

Holder told the House Government Reform Committee in early 2001, “It is now clear, and this is admittedly hindsight, that we, at the Justice Department, and more importantly, former President Clinton, the American public, in the cause of justice, would have been better served if the case had been handled through the normal channels.”