Specter says he'll back Obama choice for Justice Dept. post - Dawn Johnsen (WaPo)

[jefferson_dem]

Specter says he'll back Obama choice for Justice Dept. post
By Carrie Johnson

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) announced Tuesday that he would support Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen as the new leader of a critical Justice Department post. The move could potentially break a legislative logjam lasting nearly a year over Johnsen's nomination.

President Obama tapped Johnsen last March to head the Office of Legal Counsel, made famous during George W. Bush's administration as the place where controversial memos on executive power, waterboarding of terrorist suspects and warrantless eavesdropping won legal support.

But the Obama administration and the Senate leadership struggled to find 60 senators willing to support Johnsen. Moderate lawmakers have expressed concern over her legal work for an abortion rights group and her positions on certain national security issues.

Specter's action came amid prodding from Rep. Joe Sestak (Pa.), who is challenging the veteran lawmaker in the state's Democratic primary.

Sestak called out his rival in an e-mail message to supporters, saying, "The Office of Legal Counsel is one of the most important offices in the Department of Justice and determines the legality of actions by the President and the Executive Branch. Because of your obstruction, President Obama is trying keep the country safe from terrorism, end two wars, and close the prison at Guantanamo Bay without a critical legal adviser."

Johnsen's nomination had been stalled for so long that she resumed teaching courses at Indiana, commuting between her husband and children in the Washington area and Bloomington, the site of the law school.

<SNIP>

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/01/specter-says-hell-back-obama-c.html?wprss=44

[Cha]

1. Well, this is Good News..

Specter's been coming through for us.

[Lord Helmet]

21. +1

[FrenchieCat]

2. Great!

:headbang:

[frazzled]

3. I just want to remind everyone

of all the people who spent three days screaming here back in late December that Dawn Johnsen's nomination was dead. Dead, I tells you, dead! Because Obama (who was actually the one who nominated her) didn't "fight" and wasn't going to renominate her.

And no amount of explaining to people that the nomination was not necessarily dead would please them. The evil bastard had killed her.

I just point this out, because I think people need to stand up and be accountable for their rash statements. It's like having hit-and-run drivers here. They throw shit against the wall to see if it will stick, and then hide in silence when it doesn't.

[firedupdem]

4. +1

He had hung her out to dry and the nomination was dead in the water. :eyes:

[Scarsdale Vibe]

6. He should have used the bully pulpit. The bully pulpit will solve everything. Bully pulpit.

[Cha]

8. No.

[FrenchieCat]

11. That post may have been sarcasm.......

reads like it anyways. :shrug:

[Cha]

17. ..

Hard to tell these days. And, you're right it should read like it.

[depakid]

7. Bit of an over reaction- then and now

but at least the over reaction that may have occurred then had some chance of affecting administration and Senate behavior NOW.

The point is to secure the nomination and get some decent folks with integrity into the Justice Department.

[FrenchieCat]

12. How is it over reaction now?

I don't get that.

Is that like the Media's "they both did it"...when we know that's not really the case? :shrug:

[Cha]

9. They won't stop and

yeah, we all remember how they were jumping the gun and to conclusions.

Just wait until the next time when it happens all over again.

[depakid]

10. The administration has created the impression all by themslelves

that they're conflict (and risk) averse- and would prefer appeasement to potentially standing up and "losing" a fight.

And- as you said: "Just wait until the next time when it happens all over again."

It'll only reinforce the impression- both domestically- and abroad.

[FrenchieCat]

13. I think it is about getting it done, not getting it done like in the movies.....

that was Bush's gig....remember?

[depakid]

14. Curiously

Bush got what he wanted.

Does this president?

Raises uncomfortable, conflicting and incongruent angles for folks, eh?

[FrenchieCat]

15. Yeah...well, I'm not into getting what I want to the point of eventually

alienating everyone.

This President will get what he wants, not based on strong arming, but based on rational
perseverance and rationality.

I prefer non violent tactics myself. Might take a little longer,
but the long term results are much more stable.

[Cha]

16. No they didn't..this is all about people who like to whine and

always place the blame on someone else other than their own projections.

You don't know wtf the admin has been doing but that doesn't stop you all from bitching to high hell because you don't know a fucking thing.

[Lord Helmet]

20. They've already moved on to another fauxrage.

That's how the republicans act. They wave their arms and screech about something that has no basis in fact, and by the time they are corrected they've moved on to complaining about some other concocted fauxrage.

[struggle4progress]

5. Pennsylvania Candidate Makes Issue of DOJ Nominee.

Nominees for the U.S. Department of Justice are rarely high-profile enough to warrant attention in an election. Not so in this year's Democratic Senate primary in Pennsylvania.

Rep. Joe Sestak, who is challenging Sen. Arlen Specter for the Democratic nomination, sent an e-mail to supporters today about Dawn Johnsen. Johnsen, an Indiana University at Bloomington law professor, is President Barack Obama’s pick to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, and last year Specter helped delay Johnsen’s nomination. Specter was the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time.

Sestak, addressing Specter in the e-mail, writes that Specter has another shot to support Johnsen now that Obama is set to renominate her.

“The Office of Legal Counsel is one of the most important offices in the Department of Justice and determines the legality of actions by the President and the Executive Branch,” the e-mail reads. “Because of your obstruction, President Obama is trying keep the country safe from terrorism, end two wars, and close the prison at Guantanamo Bay without a critical legal adviser" ...

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2010/01/pennsylvania-candidate-makes-issue-of-doj-nominee.html

[Orsino]

18. And why the fuck shouldn't he?

Any attempt to paint an Obama nominee as too liberal would be ludicrous.

[burning rain]

19. Evidently it would be too much to ask....

to expect the cowards and weaklings of the Senate Democratic Caucus to cram her nomination down the Republicans' throats by using the "nuclear option," or at least threatening it, as Bill Frist did--while facing a far lesser degree of filibustering obstructionism from Democrats, I might add.