President-elect Barack Obama ’s pick for attorney general wasted no time Monday in signaling that he intends to work closely with Congress, particularly regarding the new administration’s anti-terrorism policies.

Eric H. Holder Jr. said the Justice Department’s leadership must “ensure not only that the nation is safe but also that our laws and traditions are respected. There is not a tension between those two.”

He said he looked forward to working with both Democrats and Republicans in Congress in “structuring policies that are both protective and consistent with who we are as a nation.”

Obama said that Holder “has the combination of toughness and independence that we need at the Justice Department. Let me be clear: the attorney general serves the American people. And I have every expectation that Eric will protect our people, uphold the public trust, and adhere to our Constitution.”

The pair’s remarks herald a subtle but important shift away from the adversarial relationship between the Bush Justice Department and the Democratic Congress.

The Bush administration developed several of its contentious anti-terrorism policies in secret, working with Congress only grudgingly when forced by the courts to do so. Democratic committee chairmen have been stymied in their demands for Justice Department records on those policies.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy , D-Vt., who praised Obama’s choice, said he has only spoken in “generalities” with Holder about being attorney general, but “Eric Holder and I have known each other for so long, we almost talk in shorthand. We send e-mails back and forth. We will work closely together.”

Unlike the last several attorneys general, Holder has extensive experience working inside the department, where he prosecuted public corruption straight out of Columbia Law School in 1976.

Holder has been through the Senate confirmation process three times before. He was named to the District of Columbia Superior Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. President Bill Clinton made him the District’s U.S. attorney in 1993. From 1997 until the end of the Clinton administration, Holder was deputy attorney general. Holder would be the first black attorney general.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will vet Holder for the post. Several Republicans on the panel have already voiced support for him.

Leahy pointed out that his committee also must process several other nominations to other high-ranking Justice Department posts.

“If it could be worked, my idea would be to go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom so that the American people can see the package as a whole, and that we could do all that of course before the inauguration,” Leahy said. He said he would work closely with the committee’s top Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, in setting a hearing schedule.

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