Maybe I’m missing something, but I have not noticed either the President or the Senate Majority Leader exerting themselves too vigorously on behalf of Dawn Johnsen, who, according to Roll Call, is about to be cut loose by Reid, who is thinking that he needs to “ease a backlog of executive branch nominations.” This one isn’t going anywhere, move on.
I’m certainly no expert on Senate rules or protocol, but it seems to me that if Democrats viewed Johnsen’s confirmation as non-negotiable, they would not be shrugging shoulders and sighing, ‘Oh well, it’s a shame, but what can you do?’
And looking around at some of the other blogger commentary on this, I see I’m not the only one.
Republicans are determined to prevent Johnsen from heading the Office of Legal Counsel because she is so fiercely opposed to torture and the Bush administration’s sanctioning of it, because she has been so open and straightforward about bringing to justice those who designed the CIA torture program and perverted the law to authorize it, and because she, along with Eric Holder, has put such a high priority on de-politicizing the Department of Justice and restoring what used to be — before Bush’s presidency — one of the most prestigious agencies in the Executive Branch, known for its integrity and political independence. That was before Dick Cheney, David Addington, and John Yoo turned the OLC into an ignition device for absolute, unlimited, Constitution-trampling executive power.
This is why Senate Republicans are so determined to block this nomination — although for some reason they think their disgraceful mockery of advise and consent will be less blatant if they pretend their objection to Johnson has to do with abortion — even though, as director of the Office of Legal Counsel, Johnsen would have nothing — nada, zilch, zero — to do with abortion.
Greg Sargent sees hope.
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