Thread: Attorney General Eric Holder hospitalized

Attorney General Eric Holder hospitalized

United States Attorney General Eric Holder speaks during the Human Rights Campaign's 13th annual Greater New York Gala on Feb. 8. (Keith Bedford, Reuters / February 9, 2014)


By Richard A. Serrano
11:48 a.m. CST, February 27, 2014

WASHINGTON—
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was in good condition after being taken to a Washington, D.C., hospital on Thursday after feeling faint and short of breath during his regular morning meeting with his senior staff, his office said.

"He is currently resting comfortably and in good condition. He is alert and conversing with his doctors," according to a statement from his office.

Holder, 63, is an appointee of President Obama and has been the head of the U.S. Justice Department since 2009. He served as the department's No. 2 official in the Clinton administration and was a corporate lawyer before he worked on Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

Holder keeps an active schedule, including frequent travel such as a trip this month to Sweden to speak about gay rights.

Last June, Holder was asked at a Senate committee hearing when he might decide to step down, according to the Los Angeles Times. “The tipping point might be fatigue,” he said then. “You get to a point where you just get tired."

Speaking at a legal conference in October, Holder boasted of his basketball skills and jokingly said that although he had never played with Obama, "he's from Hawaii. I'm from New York. You figure out who has the better game."

His immediate predecessor Michael Mukasey collapsed during a speech at a hotel in 2008 after what his staff called a fainting spell. He returned to work the next day.

The U.S. attorney general is seventh in the presidential line of succession, after the vice president, congressional leaders and three cabinet secretaries, according to 2008 report from the Congressional Research Service.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...,3974845.story