Attorney General Eric Holder will remain in his position at the Justice Department into President Obama's second term, a White House official said, despite being a punching bag for House Republicans for much of the last three and a half years. That confirms a Fox News report from November that Holder would stick around. The White House confirmed Holder will stay right after news broke that Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is quitting. Obama's cabinet is looking very white and male, and the White House told reporters that these other non-white-males will remain in their posts: Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki. 

In his book Kill or Capture, Daniel Klaidman reported that Obama adviser Valeria Jarrett asked Holder to stay on in 2010, even as he considered resigning: "You're my friend and I care about you," Jarrett is reported to have said. "This will not be good for you and it will not be good for your friend, the president." Justice Department sources told The Washington Post in June that since then, Holder has become "very comfortable" in his job.

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Elspeth Reeve