Thank you for staying on top of this peterr.

Obviously re-establishing the integrity of the OLC is not so much a priority for the Obama admin and AG Holder. I wonder why they seem to NOT want someone like Dawn Johnsen in a position like that? /rhetorical question

Uh why does she wait?

Why is the OLC so scary and to whom?

No doubt she waits because she ‘worked for the National Abortion & Reproductive Rights Action League (currently NARAL Pro-Choice America) from 1988 until 1993′.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_Johnsen

Pretty much any Bush WH office is scary to the GOP a Fed Audit scares them, Homeland Security looking at Blackwater, War Profiteering scares them, Attorney Generals being fired scares them, lack of regulation of banks scares them, energy company talking to Darth scares them, Missing WH e mails scares them.
We can’t run a government if we tip toe around and forget/forgive everything the Bushies have done.

They are afraid Dawn Johnsen will do the right thing.

And still she waits.

And I’m done waiting.
The audacity of hopelessness.

I seem to recall some Repub put a hold on her for just that reason.
They have certainly talked about it, painting her as of course, a radical leftie baby-killer.
Should probably search Christy’s archive; she did several posts on this very issue.

Nice write up and a useful piece of research. Thank you.

Rahm has, so far, won the battle not to reform the DoJ. That perpetuates the damage – if not the incompetence, negligence and criminality that ran rampant through the DoJ – done during the Bush regime. As a Chicago pol, Rahm and his sponsors must be as worried about an effective DoJ as Karl Rove. In Chicago fashion, he is kneecaping the rule of law by failing to reform the DoJ.

Keeping the DoJ bedridden and on life support has taken precedence over resuscitating and returning it to its fundamental position as the chief law enforcer for the United States of America. Barack Obama’s failure to replace Bush holdover US Attorneys is as shocking and negligent as his failure, a year in office, to have replaced the DoJ’s top staff. He may have gotten straight A’s at Harvard Law; he gets a D in managing the law.

Ah, that wasn’t as hard to find as I feared: here’s one url, from August:

Even More GOP Obfuscation on Dawn Johnsen?

There’s more on the same page.

When the Deputy AG resigned this week, I couldn’t help thinking of Johnsen; it doesn’t seem like the Pres. (or, ahem, his “aides”) really have the back of the principled lawyers they themselves nominated.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/12/03/us/politics/politics-us-obama-justice.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Deputy%20AG%20resigns&st=cse

Rahm has, so far, won the battle not to reform the DoJ.

earl, I believe we are on the same page here.

Oh, and thanks, Peterr, for bringing this up.

Everything Rahm does ends in failure even his wins like NAFTA are something he ends up having to run away from:)

Prof. Johnsen waits – though she was smart enough to return to teaching law at IU Bloomington rather than publicly linger in a White House waiting room – because she is not one of the boys. That is, she is a strong proponent for making real the script that Mr. Obama used to sell his candidacy – that the rule of law applies to everyone, even the man in the White House and the boys ‘n girls on the Hill.

She waits because, like Elizabeth Warren, she is an advocate for Main Street, not Wall Street. She cannot be relied upon to tailor her advice to the political farts blowing out of the White House situation rooms. She cannot be relied upon to STFU when Congress asks her questions about her predecessors’ conduct and the “quality” of their lawyering.

She’s too smart and too straight a shooter; she won’t aim at the wrong targets or hold her fire at the right ones. I don’t mean to say she’s a white knight or a foolish one. She just takes her job seriously, she’s very good at it, and she would do it. Mr. Obama has shown it’s not a job he wants done.

I like her already

Any moves by anyone to get her confirmed?

It is not a failure. It is The Plan and it is working.

Obama is acting to secure his law legacy like Bush did his MBA legacy.

I trust Rahm to fail eventually its his pattern. Fail and run from the failure. Win and run farther from the disaster his win causes. Take credit for others success and leak to the fawning press his good PR story about what a Genius he is.

But, but, but . . . Obama nominated her. What am I missing here?

That is quite a summation. I agree.

But, but, but . . . .

According to Prof. Johnson, when does a fetus have Human Rights protection under our Constitution?

Rahm focuses on the pieces in chess but has no concept of thinking about the big picture winning a battle is everything.
Changing strategy to adjust for new information like the plan is not working, or the goal itself is flawed Nope he can’t do it.
In the movie War Games the computer figured out that sometimes the best move is not to play that cognitive leap is beyond Rahm.

Don’t know when Prof. Johnsen defines it but for myself (and many others) it is when that fetus is no longer a fetus but is an actual, real life baby, outside of the womb. Until it is out of the womb, it is a parasite on the body of the soon to be mother.

Mainly because republicans (and possibly right wing dem allies) keep making spurious, annoymous requsts for “more time” to “consider” her appointment. its political horseshit of course. the other reason is obama’s unwillingness to stand up for progressives in his party.

oh i guess you meant why dosent she withdraw her name and get on with her career. i dont know.

If an Army solder gets raped does the Army pay for the abortion? If so why isn’t the GOP with holding Army funding?

And still we wait for this administration to produce anything like change.
Bush’s third term and then some.

If this is true of Ms. Johnsen, and I think it is, what are the attributes of the lawyers Rahm Emanuel does let the DoJ hire?

Ms. Johnsen would be only one of several top lawyers at the DoJ. Imagine the message Rahm sends by choosing not to hire her, while claiming that doing so is still a goal. How would this blatant contradiction affect the DoJ’s other top lawyers and its middle and junior staff; the courts; other federal agencies? The more you look at him, the more Rahm looks like Karl Rove in a toupee.

I can’t believe people are still scapegoating Rahm. Bad as he is, he is only COS, not CIC. He is NOT some rogue official operating independently of the president. Assign the blame where it belongs.

No thats not it I’m wondering what they are so afraid of if she gets the job? We can move on Bush on lots of fronts why does this got them so worried.

He carries out orders yes from Obama when he is not running his own agenda. However he executes them in an incompetent manner. His advice to Obama is also flawed.

Obama cuts people loose after they’re criticized by Glenn Beck. He doesn’t have the guts to go to bat for someone the entire GOP opposes.

True he needs some Stones.

If you bend over for Glen you don’t have the Stones to be President.

Her nomination was being used as syrup to those who thought Obama was about transparency & righting Bush’s wrong.
Well we have seen enough to know,”the old is the same with Obama”.

Obama’s has to intention of having this woman confirmed,afterall,isn’t WH still using Bush’s policies, of rendition & beatings at Bagram airforce base.

I suspect that’s correct, but suggest it demeans her to define her by a single issue or area of the law. I suspect she would prefer to be defined professionally by her views of the law and due process.

What you say is a shorthand version of current constitutional law (there are exceptions relating to fetal viability outside the womb). Until that law is explicitly changed in writing (not with pixie dust), and upheld on appeal, she would state that that is the law and that it must be enforced.

That’s why she would be a good choice to run the OLC. Its work is primarily to define the metes and bounds of the laws that empower and limit federal agencies. Under Bush, the OLC seemed to spend more time suggesting the ways the law could be broken without getting caught. Rahm seems to like that better.

Rahm and Obama are two sides of the same coin, but he exists independently of Obama,too. It’s useful to speak of Rahm when he’s doing the legwork or taking the lead as enforcer on an issue.

The old “it is an honor just to be nominated” cliche is BS. Johnsen should tell Obama if he isn’t willing to invest an iota of his political capital (if there is any not yet squandered) in getting her confirmed he can take his nomination and shove it.

I don’t think I was demeaning her in any way. I was answering a question asked. In no way should this issue be any litmus test for either side on her qualifications to be OLC. Apparently, a lot of Republicans and some supposed Democrats would disagree.

No, I agree you weren’t. I was suggesting the original questioner might be.

Ayep.

What the f..k has Rahm to do with this? This “Rahm did it” smell way too badly.

Where does Rahm begin and Obama end, you might ask. Hiring decisions of this magnitude are apparently outside Mr. Holder’s job description, as is organizing and prioritizing the White House resources to shepherd them through the U.S. Senate.

The latter, certainly, is in Mr. Emanuel’s bailiwick as White House Chief of Staff. Arguably, the former is, too, as Mr. Obama’s Congresscritter-in-residence, whose chief job seems to be to watch his political back in Chicago and on the Hill.

Book Salon a couple of flights upstairs with Mark Kleiman’s When Brute Force Fails hosted by bmaz

You know that now-familiar joke about how, if Obama walked on water, conservatives would criticize him for “not being able to swim?”

Reading these comments, now I’m not sure whether liberals or conservatives would be the first to line up to make that claim . . .

Look, criticize Obama all you want about not using his “bully pulpit” enough to push Dawn Johnsen’s nomination. Fair enough; he’s got that coming to him. (I’m not sure what Rahm has to do with that process, either.)

But to say the stalling of her nomination is all part of the Obama/Rahm “Plan” is just leftwing teabaggery . . . the facts be damned! Full speed ahead! Salvation is just over that Lemming Ledge!

With “progressives” like these, I dread 2010.

Apples and orangutans. The White House is responsible for managing the process it uses to nominate and obtain approval for appointments requiring Senate confirmation. How well that works – the number and quality of his nominations and how quickly they are approved – is a key descriptor of a president’s political power, as well as an indicator of how well he runs his White House.

As the president’s Chief of Staff, Mr. Emanuel runs the White House. He determines the president’s schedule, who he sees and who he doesn’t. He has the last say but one in approving the most senior nominations. Given the notoriety the Bush administration gave it, that would include the head of the DoJ’s OLC.

Rahm Emanuel decides which names to send to the senate and when. He determines how much public support and private arm-twisting each name gets, or doesn’t get. He decides when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em, balancing the political stakes in play for each nomination. The progress of Ms. Johnsen’s nomination is all about Mr. Emanuel’s priorities, as well as his president’s.

Mr. Obama has pulled back on a string of election promises and pre-election positions. It’s not progressives who have changed, it’s President Obama vs. candidate Obama. Politics is not a religion, and its leaders do not deserve support for their faith alone. Like every other president, Mr. Obama merits the support his actions deserve.