President Obama is considering replacing his close friend Attorney General Eric Holder with another close friend, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Reporter Michael Sneed’s column quotes a “top White House source” as saying that the president will wait until attacks die down against Holder over his handling of recent issues regarding the press and the IRS.
“The president will wait until the heat dies down — and a little time has passed beyond that — before he does anything to Holder because Holder is a close pal, and that’s a big deal in the White House,” a top Democratic source reportedly told Sneed. “Holder is also a close buddy of Obama’s senior adviser Valerie Jarrett,” the source said. “Obama knows a change has to be made, but he wants Holder to leave with his reputation intact.”
Meanwhile, Patrick is in the headlines after giving a candid account to a marketing firm in Cambridge of what he did after city officials caught one of the brothers responsible for the Boston Marathon attack that killed three people and wounded over 170 individuals. According to the Boston Herald, Patrick went to the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts, where he owns a home, following the capture of Dzokhar Tsarnaev.
Patrick received rave reviews for his handling of the bombing saga that locked down the area.
“I went for a quick swim, and I went to a local restaurant … for supper by myself with a book. And I sat in the corner and Maggie, who runs the [restaurant], asked, ‘Do you want to be near people or away from people?’ I said, ‘As far away as I can,'” Patrick said, according to the Herald.
“So she put in the corner, me and my book on my iPad, and … she starts bringing me things to drink as a celebration. And by the end of the meal, I was actually quite drunk, by myself.”
Maggie Merelle, owner of Rouge restaurant in West Stockbridge, told the Herald she recalled serving Patrick “glass of chardonnay or two.”
“He wasn’t tipsy,” she said. “I never would have known.”
Merelle said hosting the governor made her feel “like an old Jewish mother feeding him. We just wanted to nourish him.”
Patrick told her he had no money and couldn’t pay his bill, but she says he eventually settled his tab.
