Former Bush White House homeland security advisor Frances Fragos Townsend said Wednesday she would serve in the Obama administration if asked.
Townsend, who spent 13 years in the Justice Department before joining the Bush administration in 2001, was effusive this week in her praise of Eric Holder, Obama's putative nominee for attorney general.
Townsend worked under Holder during the last, frantic days of the Clinton administration, when the White House asked the Justice Department to quickly vet a pardon for fugitive financier Marc Rich.
Republicans have long singled out Holder for his role in the pardon, but Townsend effectively kaboshed that this week.
Holder "got a last-minute phone call" from the Clinton White House to vet Rich, Townsend told CNN, where she is a contributor.
"He was put in a horrible position," Townsend said, adding that Holder was being criticized unfairly in the Rich matter.
She called him "a great choice," for attorney general. "He's just a stellar guy .. a tremendous, tremendous start for the new administration."
"In a time of war with these difficult legal issues, he is going to have many, many tough issues to face. But they couldn't have picked a person better suited or more qualified to address them."
In a brief interview Wednesday, Townsend noted that she was "a career civil servant" before joining the Bush administration, starting as a prosecutor in New York in 1985, at one point working for Assistant U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani.
In 2001, he joined the Bush administration, first as chief of intelligence for the Coast Guard, then White House homeland security advisor.
"I'm a patriot and enjoyed serving in government and for the American people," she said by telephone Wednesday, adding that she never gave partisan speeches for the administration, "nor did President Bush ask me to."
As for an appointment in the Obama administration, "it would depend on what department or agency," mentioning that a job in homeland security might be a good fit.
"If they think my experience or participation could help in any way, I'd say, 'Sure, call me.'"
"I wouldn't foreclose any idea they had," she said.
"It's an historic time."
Since she resigned her White House post a year ago this month, Townsend has been a senior advisor to Thomas J. Donahue, the president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Congress, which helped raise campaign money for John McCain.
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