The president shows those bullies! If they won't confirm his nominees, why, he'll just have to throw his people under the bus!
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Dawn Johnsen is probably relieved to have the gutless
wimps of the Obama administration out of her life.
""After years of politicization of the Office during the previous administration, the President believes it is time for the Senate to move beyond politics and allow the Office of Legal Counsel to serve the role it was intended to - to provide impartial legal advice and constitutional analysis to the executive branch. He will work now to identify a replacement and call on the Senate to move swiftly to confirm that nominee in order to achieve those goals."
-- White House spokesman Ben LaBolt,
on the withdrawal of Dawn Johnsen to head the OLC
by Ken
Just to be clear, President Obama believes that the way to "move beyond politics" is to succumb to the blackmail, not just of Republicans, but of a slime-besodden member of his own party? (His initials are Ben Nelson.) Um, okay, gotcha.
The obvious objection is the terrible precedent it sets with regard to all the president's future nominations. Except that the precedent is already in place regarding all of the president's past and present nominations. The message is: "If you refuse to allow me to have the people I want in my administration, I'll . . . well, I won't do much of anything, never mind thank you for your time."
And so the withdrawal of Dawn Johnsen to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel -- even as spokesman LaBolt allows that her credentials are "exemplary" and "her commitment to the rule of law has been proven time and again" -- is totally understandable, even inevitable, given the dynamics in place, and at least allows her to get on with her life, knowing that she couldn't be confirmed because she had "only" 57 or 58 or maybe 59 votes.
Nonel of which makes it any less shocking. In case you're just coming in at this point, Sam Stein reported last night on HuffPost:
Dawn Johnsen, Key Obama Justice Nominee, Withdraws Her Nomination
Dawn Johnsen, the president's appointment to the Office of Legal Counsel whose nomination has lingered in Congressional limbo for more than a year, has officially withdrawn her candidacy for the post, according to a statement sent over from the White House.
"I am deeply honored that President Obama, the Attorney General and a strong majority of the U.S. Senate have demonstrated faith and confidence in my ability to lead the Office of Legal Counsel," Johnsen said in a statement asking for the withdrawal. "OLC plays a critical role in upholding the rule of law and must provide advice unvarnished by politics or partisan ambition. That was my guiding principle when I had the privilege to lead OLC in a past administration. Restoring OLC to its best nonpartisan traditions was my primary objective for my anticipated service in this administration. Unfortunately, my nomination has met with lengthy delays and political opposition that threaten that objective and prevent OLC from functioning at full strength. I hope that the withdrawal of my nomination will allow this important office to be filled promptly."
The withdrawal represents a major blow to progressive groups and civil liberties advocates who had pushed for Johnsen to end up in the office that previously housed, among others, John Yoo, the author of the infamous torture memos under George W. Bush.
But the votes, apparently, weren't there. Johnsen had the support of Sen Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) but was regarded skeptically by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) -- primarily for her positions on torture and the investigation of previous administration actions. A filibuster, in the end, was likely sustainable. Faced with this calculus, the White House chose not to appoint Johnsen during Senate recess, which would have circumvented a likely filibuster but would have kept her in the position for less than two years.
In a statement accompanying Johnsen's letter, White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said her credentials were "exemplary and her commitment to the rule of law has been proven time and again."
"After years of politicization of the Office during the previous administration, the President believes it is time for the Senate to move beyond politics and allow the Office of Legal Counsel to serve the role it was intended to - to provide impartial legal advice and constitutional analysis to the executive branch," LaBolt added. "He will work now to identify a replacement and call on the Senate to move swiftly to confirm that nominee in order to achieve those goals."
Well, this administration has more or less built an automatic ejection dock from which it can throw its nominees under the bus whenever the occasion arises, meaning anytime conservatives complain that one of his nominees is "too liberal."
Does the administration really believe that it has accomplished anything by captulating to the obstructionists? As often as the president has done so since taking office, can anyone think of a single instance in which he has reaped any reward? Certainly not from the opponents, who smack their lips in triumph at each additional indication that they can get this fellow to roll over just by looking at him crossly. You can see them mouthing gleefully, "We own him!"
The shame might have been lessened if this announcement had been accompanied by another: that Ben Nelson has been ejected from the Senate Democratic caucus, stripped of all seniority (including in his committee assignments), and had his men's room key confiscated. I understand that that would require a vote to that effect by the Senate Democratic caucus, but isn't this exactly what Mr. Political Hardball, Master Rahm, is supposed to be good for?
Wouldn't this have been a jolly time to make any recalcitrant senators understand that this is the way things are going to work now, and they had better all understand that or they can be next? But of course Master Rahm only plays hardball with people to his left, which means most everyone with a working brain who hasn't been bought by the megacorporate thugs who own him.
And of course this president doesn't work that way. He's "postpartisan." Meaning he'll concede just about anything to Republicans and ConservaDems.
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Labels: Barack Obama, Ben Nelson, conservadems, Dawn Johnsen, OLC, Rahm Emanuel
posted by KenInNY @ 10:00 AM
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20 Comments:
President Obama is so weak and ineffectual that he has passed an HCR that eluded everyone from Harry Truman on, passed the largest public works bill in 50 years, broken the student loan bank welfare system, and started to regulate carbon dioxide from the EPA and ...
The man is as pathetic a Lincoln in never fighting symbolic battles when he had a substantive victory in sight.
Hello! Can you say recess appointment!
A Republican HCR bill, a stimulus bill that is in no sense a "public works" bill because the administration never gave a second's consideration to such a thing (it includes SOME public works, but not much) and guaranteed the ineffectiveness of the already watered-down stim bill by diverting so much of it to clearly UN-stimulating tax cuts -- all in the interest of picking up NOT A SINGLE Republican vote.
Every piece of environmental legislation the administration has allowed to be considered is so grotesquely compromised that serious students of the issue are divided as to whether the good outweighs the bad. The one thing we know is that this administration will compromise just about ANY aspect of it to make it less objectionable to people who will never consider voting for it.
Of course the OLC's work is "symbolic," which explains why the torture memos that John Yoo wrote as an OLC member are so unimportant. And it's "symbolic" that this administration is maybe half staffed, and that much policy continues to be made and/or enforced by Bush regime holdovers (well, why shouldn't Bush regimistas make and enforce Obama administration policy? it seems to be pretty much the same, doesn't it?), and the federal courts -- which President Obama had a historic opportunity to reshape -- remain, thanks to the failure to fill nearly any of those vacancies, as conservative as the Bush regime made them with all the appointments that Senate Dems allowed to go through.
The student-loan reform is an interesting exception. I'm sure if you dig deep enough you can find where the big-money payoff is there too, but it does seem to be at least something. But is that really it?
Yeah, I know, it would be worse under a President McCain. But is that really an acceptable standard?
And Bula, Sam covered the recess-appointment possiblity in his post. He argues that the White House rejected that option because Johnsen would only have been able to serve for two years.
Ken
Actually, the stimulus bill got 3 republican votes - the difference between win and lose in fact, the tax cuts were targeted at working poor and reversed some of the Bush regressive tax code, the stimulus bill has among other things caused a boom in the wind power installation business, and there were a lot of public works projects http://enr.construction.com/business_management/finance/2009/0213-StimulusBillCompromise.asp
Other than getting all the facts wrong, you were on target though. Of course it was not as good as the stimulus bill that would have passed if magic ponies controlled the US Senate, but the ponies were busy that week.
Environment: http://www.good.is/post/the-top-10-environmental-plays-of-obama-s-rookie-season
Given the makeup of the US Senate and House, I'm shocked he's managed anything.
And I want to specifically address the OLC. In fact, it is exactly correct that the OLC is symbolic. Do you believe that a contrary opinion in OLC would have deterred Bush/Cheney from torturing? Power is power and bullshit is bullshit. I don't know why the US Left has such a preference for the latter.
i think obama is just scared. scared for his life. he wants to stay alive and he knows the powers that be can take him out if they want to. so what to do ? try to become one of them, roll in the pig shit with wall street, the war machine with its many death squads, or any of the others murderous characters and organizations. this guy sucks on the tit of chicago politics, the machine-gun style of doing business. but we know he can never be one of them if he's a socialist muslim , so this pale faced guy will capitulate to these powers in order to not be killed. why else ken, would he waste the HUGE political capital he got during the election. what do you think, could this be in the back of his mind?
I'VE got all the facts wrong???
You have no idea what you're talking about. You provide a link -- from ENGINEERING NEWS RECORD, of all places -- and it doesn't back up ANYTHING you've claimed.
The fact remains that in what you called a public works bill, the amount of public works spending is trivial relative to even the new federal spending in the package. And this notion that the tax cuts were targeted to help the working poor, where did you get that idea? Find me a reputable economist who wouldn't be astonished by such a claim.
And as for tre makeup of Congress, you're clueless about the politics involved. Eventually you really have to come to the realization that when the Dems "don't have the votes" NO MATTER HOW MANY VOTES THEY HAVE, it's because they DON'T WANT to do it. Rahm Emanuel has spent most of his time making sure that nothing unacceptably progressive slips through Congress -- he makes war on unacceptably liberal Democrats, virtually never on the right-wing Dems who pass themselves off as "centrists."
This administration came in with majorities in both houses of Congress that no one has had in ages. The president began by sending the signal in the LIeberman matter that there was no price to be paid for failing to back him, and there never has been since. We'll never know what kind of progressive legislation could have been gotten through Congress when the administration was working with one hand tied behind its back.
And in EVERY negotiation it beings by giving up half of what it initially asked for, before there have even been any negotiations. The HCR reform battle was even worse, because the administration never realed that its assumption going in was that the interests of the insurance and drug companies were to be nonnegotiably protected.
That this administration is unwilling even to fight for its own nominees, and on issue after issue quietly adopts and enforces the policies of the Bush regime, is hardly unknown (except apparently to you) -- and I'm afraid is no longer surprising.
The environmental package is mostly garbage. And the president's conversion to "Drill, baby, drill" is once again not going to pick up a single vote. (Yes, three Republicans voted for the final stim package, by the time it had been compromised beyond hope of working -- when there was no longer any possibility of finding out what a proper Democratic stimulus package would have looked like.)
Go on deluding yourself, but don't tell me I've got my facts all wrong.
Ken
I'm sorry, but facts are facts.
You write:
"the already watered-down stim bill by diverting so much of it to clearly UN-stimulating tax cuts -- all in the interest of picking up NOT A SINGLE Republican vote."
But the FACT is that the bill passed the Senate with 61 votes, breaking Republican filibuster thanks to Collins, Specter, and Snowe. THREE and "NOT A SINGLE" are not the same things especially when 60 was needed to not LOSE (although I understand that glorious losing is the default progressive goal).
Your other facts are equally valid. I particularly like the unreality of the theory that in a Senate where Chuck Schumer is unusually liberal and smart by comparison, where the Democratic majority includes Blanche and Mary Landreiu and Nelson and Bayh - where effing Dianne Feinstein is a relatively reliable vote - you have the insane theory that only Rahm Emmanuel is preventing progressive legislation from appearing magically. Oh yeah, because Evan Bayh really really wanted to pass single payer and DiFi is hot to smash the corporate state, but Rahm wouldn't let them do it. It's to laugh.
I'm just imaging the US senate deliberations
DiFi: We need to take the profit motive out of health care.
Baucus: Yeah, Dianne, I'm sick of these insurance companies.
Dodd: I've always hated financial companies, we should have workers collectives.
Landreiu: I will fight to the end for whatever our President chooses - I'm a loyal Democrat above all.
Bayh: Goddamn it Mary, we can't just rubber stamp the President, we need to stand up for working people, just like my Dad did and like my Hoosier Hero: Eugene Debs.
Rahm: Fuck that. We're rolling over for the Republicans whatever you commies say.
All: Awww, shucks. I guess we have to.
And then, I woke up!
Obama would be in a much stronger position today politically if he had (done his Constitutionally-mandated duty and) prosecuted the criminal behavior of the last several years. The best defense is a good offense.
Instead, he gave all the criminals a pass. And what do you know - they all turned around and bit him. And the country's fucked.
Wow, that was a shocker. No one could have seen that coming, no sirree.
Well done Keni,
I haven't YET forgiven Obama for throwing Wesley Clark under the bus for non pc telling the truth about John McCain's LACK of command experience. (crashing planes didn't count).
I'm not sure who is going to support him after all the progressives walk away. The Coffee party?
Thank You Ken for your accurate characterization of 'centrist' Democratic politics and the current administration.
I suggest that you check out Glenn Greenwald's post on Dawn Johnson for another, more damning, perspective.
Well, I would agree with Greenwald that Obama wouldn't want anybody like Johnson in Justice, he might not be able to murder American citizens without judicial oversight.
Reading rootless_e's stuff is interesting. In much the same way any delusional mind is interesting. I am completely amazed that people who at least call themselves progressive claim fall for that kind of crap.
I wondered why the right hated Clinton so much since he gave them nearly everything they wanted. Then Bush came along and I understood. Their desire is a return to the 13th century. God knows what will follow Obama, who doesn't have a booming economy to float him to a second term.
We are so screwed.
I wondered why the right hated Clinton so much since he gave them nearly everything they wanted. Then Bush came along and I understood. Their desire is a return to the 13th century.
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11th century, Lawguy, 11th. Even the 12th had at least premonitions of logic, what with Abelard's Sic et Non. There was nothing logical or intelligent about the blind faith of the Bush administration and its wanking zealots. They were a bunch of Neo-Con Schoolmen.
And Roll-Me-From-the-Right Obama is their chump. I wonder just how far he's been anesthetized by his crew, that he doesn't perceive why his administration is so badly liked and why the Congress Dems are perceived as spineless and craven?
"why his administration is so badly liked and why the Congress Dems are perceived as spineless and craven"
I thought Obama was smart, but he just seems so clueless. I just hope he opens his eyes before it's entirely too late.
I tell you, Obama is either a lot stupider than I thought he was, or a lot smarter. I won't take any bets on the latter.
I tell you, Obama is either a lot stupider than I thought he was, or a lot smarter. I won't take any bets on the latter.
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I'm with you, Me. I imagine he thinks it's #2, but of course it's #1. Because he's gotten nothing in exchange for all the craven prostrations to the GOP that he's given, though it plays into his own native conservative instincts. He just doesn't realize: the GOP isn't simply made up of conservatives. It's made up of conservatives who want him to lose badly.
Ken made an assertion that was flat out factually incorrect. He claimed Obama didn't get a single Republican vote in exchange for his concessions on the stimulus bill. But actually, Obama got 3 Republican votes in the Senate and they were the difference between winning and losing.
If you start from counter-factual statements, you end up with nonsense.
But I am apparently the delusional one!
Well, let's see the bill that was passed being called HRC was nothing like that at all ertainly it did not resemble anything Truman, Johnson, or FDR would have wanted. And was passed without a single republican vote.
Well even a blind pig finds etc.
Thanks Mr. Warmth for the Greenwald reference, very quietly scary.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/
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