Alone among cabinet officers, attorneys general are partisan appointees expected to rise above partisanship. All struggle to find a happy medium between loyalty and independence. Few succeed. At one extreme looms Alberto Gonzales, who allowed the Justice Department to be run like Tammany Hall. At the other is Janet Reno, whose righteousness and folksy eccentricities marginalized her within the Clinton administration. Lean too far one way and you corrupt the office, too far the other way and you render yourself impotent. 

Mindful of history, Holder is trying to get the balance right. “You have the responsibility of enforcing the nation’s laws, and you have to be seen as neutral, detached, and nonpartisan in that effort,” Holder says. “But the reality of being A.G. is that I’m also part of the president’s team. I want the president to succeed; I campaigned for him. I share his world view and values.”

Holder appears to be a man of conscience who is trying hard to walk that fine line–but more importantly, to do the right thing. He served in the Justice Department during the Clinton Administration, and was involved in authorizing the independent prosecutor to investigate Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. As the article notes, he kicks himself every day for permitting the Marc Rich pardon.

Now, Holder is considering authorizing an independent prosecutor to look into the torture abuses of the Bush administration. The Obama administration opposes this–they have nothing to gain, it’ll galvanize the Republican base, and it’ll distract from Obama’s domestic agenda. But after reading–twice–the CIA inspector general’s classified report, he didn’t see how he could not take action, as the nation’s top law enforcement officer. 

So we’ll see–probably soon-what he decided to do, or not do.