Attacks on DOJ Nominees Signal Right's Judicial Nominations Strategy

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Right-wing political and legal organizations have unleashed a coordinated campaign of over-the-top attacks on the qualifications, records, and fitness of President Obama’s nominees for important positions in the U.S. Justice Department. Deputy Attorney General nominee David Ogden has been the prime target of the Right’s wrath, but Solicitor General nominee Elena Kagan, Associate Attorney General nominee Thomas Perrelli, and Office of Legal Counsel nominee Dawn Johnsen have also come in for their share of criticism.

The rhetoric used in the attacks, documented extensively on RightWingWatch.org, suggests that the campaign may be less about actually stopping any of these nominees and more about getting right-wing activists, pundits, and lawmakers warmed up for similar attacks on eventual Obama nominees to the federal judiciary, and in particular to the U.S. Supreme Court. Right-wing leaders want to tarnish the image of Obama to strengthen their hand when they try to block his judicial nominees. But the deceptive and distorted nature of the attacks should signal to senators, journalists, and others the importance of questioning the credibility of those charges when they come.

The Right hopes that their distorted stories about Obama’s DOJ nominees will condition conservative activists and media (and, they hope, a broader public) to believe that:

* Obama is a dangerous radical who is using his appointment power to turn the government over to out-of-the-mainstream extremists; and
* his judicial nominees will be extremists who plan to rule based on their feelings and political beliefs rather than the law or the Constitution.

Right-wing leaders have launched these attacks against undeniably qualified and widely respected nominees who have won wide support across the political spectrum, including from many individuals who served as Justice Department officials under Presidents Reagan, Bush I and Bush II. Their careers show a commitment to the rule of law and to ensuring equal justice and fairness for all Americans principles deeply embedded in the Constitution. The feverish attacks from far-right leaders, whose similarly hyperbolic rants about the threat of an Obama presidency were rejected by voters, make it clear that they are the ones “out of the mainstream.”

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http://site.pfaw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=rww_in_focus_attacks_on_doj_nominees

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1. #1 Did you see Eric holder today on CSPAN responding to AGs who were worried about their appointment

s?

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2. #2 Is there a response on the left to the right wing spin machine attacking nominations?