Civil Rights Group Mobilizing On Johnsen's Behalf
While it's not clear how serious Senate Republicans are about filibustering Dawn Johnsen's nomination as chief of the Office of Legal Counsel at DOJ, civil rights groups aren't waiting to find out.
Marge Baker, executive vice president of People for the American Way says, "We're going to do whatever we can to mobilize our members to make sure they're in contact with their representatives."
She says they'll be armed with two stories: that, contra Sen. John Cornyn, Johnsen is eminently qualified to head the OLC, having served as deputy assistant attorney general from 1993 to 1996, and having actually run the show at OLC as acting assistant attorney general in 1997 and 1998 (while Republicans held up Clinton's OLC-chief designate Beth Nolan); and that GOP calls for a filibuster are hypocritical given the Republicans' usual contention that the president should have broad leeway to choose his advisers and cabinet officials, and their opposition to the filibuster for judicial nominees.
More on the hypocrisy charge in a bit. But Baker put an exclamation point on that last point. "It's not ok to filibuster a lifetime appointment but it is ok to filibuster a temporary one?" She asked rhetorically. "It should be backward."
Josh
Matt
Eric
In the other comment thread, clonecone pointed out this:
Permalink: Clonecone's catch on Grassley
Good catch.
And Republicans need to be asked whether they agree with Grassley, and if they do not, why not? This bullshit double standard of theirs has to be challenged.
April 6, 2009 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
If the darned media wasn't so liberal, it would challenge Republicans to opine on Grassley's position.
April 7, 2009 9:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good on PFAW, I felt inspired to send them another donation for this.
April 6, 2009 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
And Koh also, I assume?
April 6, 2009 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's now a lot more clear how serious Republicans are. Scott Horton has this at The Daily Beast
April 6, 2009 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's it oregondave. That is the info I was waiting for. The Repubs are willing to short-circuit our government inorder to try to supress evidence of the criminal wrongdoings of the dirtbags that controlled our country the last 8 years.
April 7, 2009 11:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
And now we have Senator Burr putting a "hold" on Tammy Duckworth for a position in the Veterans Affairs. Let's see: Duckworth lost two legs in Iraq, Burr hasn't served a day. But he's a good Evangelical and Conservative, so he must be a "true patriot".
Unlike Duckworth, apparently. Sounds like another Chickenhawk to me.
April 6, 2009 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Doesn't Burr have a primary opponent in NC breathing down his neck? In the GOP, that means a race to the right.
April 6, 2009 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
GOP = hypocricsy.It's that simple but seems like it's up to the grassroots to ratchet up the media blitz on this GOP obstructions.Senate dems led by HReid simply too soft.
April 6, 2009 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I work for NARAL Pro-Choice America and I just wanted to let folks know that we have launched a campaign to get three of Obama's nominees approved: Judge David Hamilton, Prof. Dawn Johnsen, and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. More info can be found here.
April 6, 2009 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
This should be the first real test of the strength of the grass roots Left community. When the Christian right was sending form letters from Pat Robertson to Congressman on gay marriage, I heard that if they received more than 40 letters, it got their attention.
April 6, 2009 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would suggest those Democrat Congress critters better start placing the blame for all of our financial bailouts at the feet of the repuglicans and with great fanfare. The Democrats are the majority in both House and Senate and I expect them to start acting the part. I'm tired of hearing the repuglicans acting as if they control the agenda!
April 6, 2009 6:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama should go nuclear himself by immediately releasing all the memos, then recess-appointing Johnsen and Koh.
April 6, 2009 6:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with release of the memo's - even if it means a stink on a few Dems, like Sen. Rockefeller - is the right thing to do. Don't cave into the Repub's on that. However, the recess appointment thing is a waste. They will be either forced to go through this process again in 2010, or skip away. Pres. Obama needs these qualified people to stick around for his entire first term.
April 6, 2009 8:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Repos are grasping at straws, for any way to be relevant or have even a semblance of power.
Do we ridicule them for that?
April 6, 2009 10:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
First, I would like to apologize for my State for inflicting on you the untold damage done by mean, little, people like George Bush, Tom Delay, and John Cornyn. You can imagine how dispiritng it is to those of us who are proud to be from a State that also brought Dwight D. Eisenhower, Buddy Holly, and Nolan Ryan. Kudos to NARAL and PFAW! The Republicans are digging a deeper hole. They are not going to change. The best offense is to continue to point out their hypocrisy, and their cavalier attitude toward the welfare of America. We won, they lost. Let's appoint anyone we damn well please!
April 7, 2009 9:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
I feel for you, scott. I live in the Chicago suburbs, where the neo-cons rule also. They have an answer for everything (usually not based on fact). The important thing for them is not right or wrong, but rather winning, no matter what it takes or how many facts have to be altered.
April 7, 2009 11:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
It is extremely frustrating to have two rightwing Republicans representing me in the Senate: Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn.
I hope I live to see the day when both of them are out of office and Texans once again can take pride in their presentation in the U. S. Senate.
April 7, 2009 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
*sigh* "presentation" should have been *representation.*
See -- I really am frustrated.
April 7, 2009 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink