Republicans Go All Alice-in-Wonderland Over Dawn Johnsen Justice Nomination

Neil A. Lewis in today's New York Times reports that Republicans are threatening a filibuster to prevent the confirmation of Dawn Johnsen because, according to Senator John Cornyn of Texas, "Ms. Johnsen lacked the 'requisite seriousness' to head the Office of Legal Counsel."

As a law professor at Indiana University, Ms. Johnsen had criticized the memos of Bush Administration lawyers like John C. Yoo, William J. Haynes II, Jay S. Bybee, and David S. Addington who argued after 9-11 that the President could abrogate laws regarding torture and ignore international treaties he disagreed with.

The broad reading of presidential authority was "outlandish," and the constitutional arguments were "shockingly flawed," Ms. Johnsen has written. While her language was harsh, the memos have largely been withdrawn, and among lawyers a consensus agreeing with her views has emerged.

So Senator Cornyn's attack is based on...what? Because she repudiated the Bush Administration's legal opinions, that proves she lacks "requisite seriousness."

This is truly down-the-rabbit-hole thinking. Ms. Johnsen stood up to protest illegal behavior so the Republicans argue she is unfit to head the Office of Legal Counsel. She stated her position in an article in Slate:

...we must regain our ability to feel outrage whenever our government acts lawlessly and devises bogus constitutional arguments for outlandishly expansive presidential power. Otherwise, our own deep cynicism, about the possibility for a President and presidential lawyers to respect legal constraints, itself will threaten the rule of law... OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] , the office entrusted with making sure the President obeys the law instead here told the President that in fighting the war on terror, he is not bound by the laws Congress has enacted.

It is because she was such an articulate defender of the law that she should take charge of the very office that Mr. Yoo and Mr. Bybee had undermined.

That is precisely the opinion of Democrats like Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. Again from Neil A. Lewis' article:

After the 'long, dark days of degradation" of the office...it is hypocritical of Republicans who were then silent to complain now about partisanship... Where were [Repubicans] when those incompetent, ideological opinions were being issued?

What's truly criminal in the Senate Hearing is the abuse Ms. Johnsen has to endure because she defended the law when it was under severe attack by Bush Administration officials both in the White House and the Justice Department.

In these darkly partisan times we can expect that the Republican leadership will push their opposition because they need to sound tough, even if it makes them sound like the Mad Hatter.

Comments

[Dave Baldwin]

What the blog fails to ackowledge in this post is that the Republicans protesting Ms Johnsen's nomination has little to nothing to do with her criticisms of the Bush's administration policy on torture and the treatment of detainees post 9/11. It has everything to do with the face that Dawn Johnsen has some of the most extreme views on any legislation that restricts access to abortion. Take wind of a couple of her opinions.

"Statutes that curtail her abortion choice are disturbingly suggestive of involuntary servitude, prohibited by the Thirteenth Amendment, in that forced pregnancy requires a woman to provide continuous physical service to the fetus in order to further the state’s asserted interest.”

“The woman is constantly aware for nine months that her body is not wholly her own: the state has conscripted her body for its own ends. Thus, abortion restrictions, ‘reduce pregnant women to no more than fetal containers.’”

“The argument that women who become pregnant have in some sense consented to the pregnancy belies reality…and others who are the inevitable losers in the contraceptive lottery no more ‘consent’ to pregnancy than pedestrians ‘consent’ to being struck by drunk drivers.’”

It seems entirely egregious that one could on one hand criticize the treatment of people who are known terriorts and on the other hand have such a blatant disregard for the sanctity of human life. This is where the statement that she lacks the "requisite seriousness" originates from.

[SOLERSO68]

let them fillibuster. Obama should NOT withdraw her nomination.it will call attention back to the republicans and thier illegal "unitary executive" where we could use a little more attention these days

[zeezan]

John Cornyn embarrasses Texas once again.

[mama mac]

Sigh...looks like I'll be firing off another of my unread letters to my illustrious Senator's office, only to receive a robo-reply posturing about how he's right, the other side's wrong, and a patronizing "thanks for writing, and don't worry, I always vote with the best interests of Texas in mind". And to think we're stuck with him for another 6 years--just makes my stomach churn.

Embarrassing, just embarrassing.

[daninastoria]

When they say she lacked requisite seriousness, what they mean is, she is very serious about the law, and that's not a good thing for them. They figure she will go after some for the real evil doers.

[proudprogressive]

The Dems had better not back down on this one. She needs their full support. Let the Repugs go ahead and try a fillabuster. So what? Calling a bully's bluff is the only way to go.

[ArticleFriendly]

Ms. Johnsen absolutely deserves the office, and the repubs absolutely deserve her comments on their criminal acts. Since the repubs have show how they are gluttons for punishment in the media, I suspect they will follow their usual pattern with no thought to the consequences.

[sophistwatch]

The Dems should unceremoniously ram her nomination down the throats of the Republicans. They should be publicly humiliated for letting Yoo and co get away with what they did. There should be no compromise on this one.

[joebloe]

You would think the republicans would want someone in the OLC like her to make sure Obama doesn't do things that are unconstitutional. Otherwise he might get the rendition & detention program running again just for them.

[Venicedread]

Let them filibuster.
They don't have a leg to stand on here.
The worst thing they could do for themselves is to bring attention to why they don't want her.

I am impressed more and more with the Obama administration.
A lot of lefties out there were complaining he wasn't appointing enough liberals or progressives.
Now that he has established sustained support over these last couple of months, he will start putting into place the real players of change.
He has a solid base, while making the GOP look foolish, even childish at times.
I'm impressed to say the least.
He's playing chess, while the GOP continues to play checkers.

[bandit09]

Great post, except calling the GOP checker players gives checkers a bad name. They are playing maybe Pong.

[MerhabaAbi]

Even Pong required concentration and honest effort. Maybe they're playing duck duck goose. They sure like to arbitrarily hit someone and then run around in circles screaming. I apologize if I've offended any Kindergarteners.

[studentoflaw]

As a former student of Dawn's (I was in a small class with her last semester when she was nominated), I would just like to thank the author for calling the Republicans out on this. Those of us who have had the great luck to be instructed by her know that she is a serious, open-minded, brilliant Constitutional scholar who could not possible be more qualified, and it is hard to articulate how frustrating it is to watch an entire political party attack this honorable woman.

and Readers: PLEASE contact your GOP congressional representatives about this. Tell them you aren't buying their partisan BS and demand these unfounded attacks to stop!

[LeftRight]

To: Senator Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader
From: The American People

Sen. Reid,

It has come to our attention that the Republican party in the Senate would like to filibuster President Obama's nomination of Dawn Johnson. If you don't force them to publicly filibuster her, we will do everything in our power to ensure that the fine people of Nevada remove you from office.

Thank you for your time,

America.

[ScarletKnight1307]

this is a fight the Republicans don't want to have

they should have to explain why

and if they still won't budge

then call Mr. Yoo and his colleagues to defend themselves and why this person should not be confirmed. This is an opportunity for the Administration and the Dems to act like they have a pair and tie the Senate Republicans to the worst administration in the history of the U.S.

I dare the Republicans to be this stupid

as a RWR republican (RWR-Republican Who Reads) i am guessing they will be