As I noted yesterday (though I got the details slightly wrong), the OPR report revealed that a number of John Yoo and Patrick Philbin’s emails had been deleted (and that Goldsmith’s had been deleted but were subsequently recovered).

The failure of the Obama Administration to support the Dawn Johnsen nomination, a far less than good faith effort that finally resulted in Johnsen’s nomination being killed by operation of Senate Rule, was not due to a lack of 60 votes for cloture on the nomination, but instead was to permit the abuse of the OLC, just as the Bush Administration before them, in order to cover up governmental illegality.

Classes start this week for Dawn Johnsen at IU’s Maurer School of Law, and also for John Yoo at Boalt Hall in Berkeley. But before classes start for either of them, Yoo is sitting down tomorrow night with John Stewart to chat about his new book.

That should make the first class session on Tuesday quite something at both schools.

Sam Stein asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about the pace of federal appointments in the past year, and Gibbs said the President is unhappy about the slowness of the confirmations. More importantly, Stein has some Administration officials on background saying that Dawn Johnsen will be re-nominated for head of the Office of Legal [...]

It’s been eleven months since Dawn Johnsen was nominated to serve as the Assistant Attorney General to head up the Office of Legal Counsel. Dozens of other nominees have been confirmed to major DOJ positions in those eleven months, and still she waits.

Only controversial nominees should expect a tough process. Well qualified, not controversial nominees should not be scared off by fear of having their reputations trashed if they allow their names to be submitted.

photo via CAPAFThe blog Main Justice reports that Eric Holder told reporters on Tuesday that he expects Dawn Johnsen to be confirmed as head of the Office of Legal Counsel:

In a discussion with reporters at the Department of Justice, Holder said Johnsen had been in limbo for “far too long.”

“I expect that Dawn Johnsen will be confirmed,” Holder said.

Civil liberties extremists felt they had reason to celebrate when Barack Obama was elected President. It now appears that those celebrations were not justified.

AG Holder again made it clear that the DOJ will not prosecute interrogators who were “just following orders” validated by the OLC interrogation memos. How sad to see him baptize the Nuremberg Defense, squander the legacy of Justice Jackson, and repudiate one of the finest moments in legal history.

Elephants lined up weathervane via blackforgeart.

All signs point to yes.

Paul Mirengoff at Powerline has been the point man for the Federalist Society talking points on Johnsen’s nomination. And he recently went with the inaccurate hyperventilation technique here:

…Dawn Johnsen, President Obama’s aggressively radical nominee…

Note that for Paul, John Yoo and David Addington are jim dandy, and a government which willfully lies to you about violating