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Attorney General Eric Holder. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Outgoing Attorney GeneralEric Holderhit back this weekat Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans who had hammered him (in absentia) throughout last weeks confirmation hearings on his likely successor, Loretta Lynch.

Holder, speaking at a news conference Tuesday to announce a$1.4 billion settlement of a lawsuit alleging Standard and Poors Financial Services tried to defraud investors, went way, way, off message at the end of the event.

This notion, he said, that under his watch this Justice Department has been politicized is totally inconsistent with the facts. You want to look at a politicized Justice Department, you look at the one I inherited, all right? You look at the way in which hiring was done here for political reasons.

Holder said his team had to rebuild this department and that it was a little irresponsible for Hill folks to characterize honest policy differences as political.

This will, of course, be one of Holders last news conferences at the department. Barring some major surprise, Lynch is expected to be approved by the committee the last week in February, with Senate confirmation likely the first or second week in March.

But Holders not going to be lounging around in his fifthfloor office, taking in the view. Oh no, hes off Thursday to sunny Oakland, Calif. for a Building Community Trust roundtable with local and federal officials in the morning. He then meets with students and police officers and tours the Willie Mays Boys and Girls Club in San Francisco.

Then, on Friday, he will be in Pasadena, Calif. to receivea major award at the 46th NAACP Image Awards that evening. Its a true Hollywood star-studded event, with folks like Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne, David Oyelowo, Kerry Washington and, yes, Oprah, expected to be there.

(Talk about heavy lifting.)

RELATED: Loretta Lynch assures GOP she is not Eric Holder, again and again

Original post:
In the Loop: Departing Eric Holder blasts Senate Judiciary Republicans