Arlen Specter

In Limbo: Dawn Johnsen's Nomination Stalls Thanks to Democrats

Brian Beutler | May 15, 2009, 11:44AM

For several weeks--while torture revelations have dominated headlines and with the scandal still very much alive--Dawn Johnsen has been waiting. She's Obama's pick to head the Office of Legal Counsel--the same Justice Department shop that famously blessed Bush-era interrogation policies--and her strong stance on that issue has united Republicans against her. But that's not her biggest problem. Her biggest problem is that Harry Reid has not been able to muster enough Democrats to overcome a filibuster threat.

Here are the numbers as they stand right now:

Votes Against Johnsen: 37 Republicans

Votes for Johnsen: 57 Democrats plus Indiana Republican Richard Lugar

Undecideds: Republicans Olypmia Snowe and Susan Collins and Democrats Arlen Specter and Ben Nelson

Reid frames the issue by saying he needs a couple Republicans to cross the line before he has the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster. But as the numbers show, it's just as much an issue of Reid not being able to muster the entire Democratic caucus in support of Johnsen.

The nomination isn't dead yet, but with Reid trying to put the onus on the White House to shore up support for the beleaguered nominee and the White House staying mum about what it role in all this is, or should be, Johnsen's nomination isnt going anywhere fast.

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Jeff Sessions

Sessions Hires Torture, Wiretapping, Political Prosecutions Apologist As Key Aide

Brian Beutler | May 14, 2009, 11:44AM

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is bringing aboard an almost entirely new staff to back up the minority members on the Judiciary Committee. Among the senior aides is one Brian Benczkowski. Does that name ring a bell?

If it does, you're probably a long time reader of Talking Points Memo, and we salute you. Benczkowski was Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General under Michael Mukasey, and a key figure working behind the scenes to cover up corruption in the Bush Justice Department.

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Justice Department

Sessions: A Moderate On Judicial Nominees?

Brian Beutler | May 7, 2009, 9:14AM

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the freshly minted ranking member on the judiciary committee surprised Neal Cavuto last night by saying he could easily see voting for a pro-choice Supreme Court nominee.

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Barack Obama

Obama: State's Secrets Privilege Too Broad. I Know! I've Used It!

Brian Beutler | April 29, 2009, 8:52PM

Time's Michael Scherer just asked an excellent question. During the campaign, Obama took the position that the Bush administration had abused the state's secret privilege, but since coming into office he has used it repeatedly to argue that crucial national security cases be thrown out of court.

Scherer asked the President to reconcile that contradiction. And Obama's answer was...a bit disingenuous. "I actually think that the state secrets doctrine should be modified," he said. "I think right now it's overbroad."

So why has he been hiding behind its breadth? "We're in for a week, and suddenly we've got a court filing that's coming up...and we don't have the time to think up what an overarching form that doctrine should take."

But it's hard to square that with what the administration's actually done. DOJ lawyers haven't asked the courts for more time, or to withhold key pieces of information. Rather, they've argued that these cases--Jewel v NSA, Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v Obama, and Mohammed v Jeppesen Dataplan--be tossed out entirely. And they've done that by invoking the state secrets privilege. In fact, in Jewel, the administration went so far as to claim "sovereign immunity" for the government from just about any lawsuit involving wiretapping. That position is even more radical than Bush's was.

It's hard to imagine Obama walking that claim back. But as far as state secrets go, now he's on the record. The administration, he said, is "searching for ways to redact to carve out certain cases to see what can be done... there should be some additional tools so that it's not such a blunt instrument." That's news--the White House hasn't always been so straightforward. But there are incipient efforts in Congress to do just what Obama said, and if I had been offered a followup question, I might have asked whether this means he'll throw his full weight behind them.

Arlen Specter

Will the Republicans Filibuster Dawn Johnsen?

Brian Beutler | April 2, 2009, 6:48PM

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Republicans are weighing the possibility of using their much-beloved filibuster to block Obama judicial and DOJ appointees.

The current Republican focus is on a pair of nominees: Mr. Obama's first selection for a federal appeals court seat, David F. Hamilton, and his choice to head the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department, Dawn Johnsen. (By coincidence, the two are in-laws.)

But will they actually prevent an up or down vote? Democrats say early signs are troubling.

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Justice Department

Deputy AG Nominee Held By GOPers as Conservative Activists Plot Strategy

Elana Schor | March 5, 2009, 11:58AM

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) confirmed today that Republicans are holding up approval of David Ogden, President Obama's nominee to be deputy attorney general. From Leahy's remarks in the committee this morning:

Despite the strong support from law enforcement groups, children's advocates, civil rights organizations and former Democratic and Republican officials, and despite this Committee's bipartisan vote, Republican Senators have now chosen to filibuster the second of President Obama's nominations reported by this Committee. This is not a good start.

Ogden did win approval in committee, as Leahy notes, from senior Judiciary GOPer Arlen Specter (PA) as well as Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). But we know who doesn't like him: the right.

Family Research Council fellow Cathy Ruse, in a recent op-ed for CNSNews.com, outlined the conservative case against Ogden, focusing on his past defense of abortion providers and the porn industry. Focus on the Family is also mobilizing its members this week to call for Ogden's defeat.

Late Update: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is expected to file for cloture on Ogden's nomination this week, according to Leahy's office -- meaning that Republicans will be challenged to put their money where their mouth is soon enough.

Barack Obama

Second Democrat Hits Obama Over Defending Bush's State Secrets Claim

Elana Schor | February 11, 2009, 2:33PM

The Obama administration recently made the dismaying decision to defend the Bush-era Justice Department's use of the "state secrets" privilege in a lawsuit filed by alleged victims of extraordinary rendition. As TPM alum Greg reported yesterday, Sen. Russ Feingold (WI) was the first Democratic lawmaker to openly criticize the Obama DoJ's decision ... and now we have a second.

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Democrats

Post-Bush Truth Commission May Not Take the Form of a Senate Bill

Elana Schor | February 10, 2009, 1:21PM

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy's (D-VT) call yesterday for an independent "truth and reconciliation commission" to investigate the abuses committed under the Bush administration is meeting with strong support from at least two of his panel's Democratic members.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) just released a statement hailing Leahy's "leadership" on the issue and stressing the need for accountability: "We cannot simply sweep these assaults on the rule of law under the rug." Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) was the first to weigh in with support for the idea yesterday.

But one key question remains unanswered: Will senators follow the lead of their House colleagues and actually offer a bill to set up an independent investigative panel to shed sunlight on the misdeeds of the Bush years, from interrogations to warrantless wiretapping?

As Whitehouse told me today, the answer may be no -- but here's why.

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Justice Department

You Won't Believe Who's Helping Push the Anti-Solis Campaign

Elana Schor | February 6, 2009, 11:34AM

Ask yourself this: Who is the most insanely inappropriate person to be cheerleading from the sidelines as GOP senators put the brakes on Rep. Hilda Solis' (D-CA) nomination to lead the Labor Department?

(Alberto Gonzales would be a good guess, but he's job hunting right now.)

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Barack Obama

Hey, Republicans: Bush Allies Love Obama's Solicitor General Nominee

Elana Schor | February 5, 2009, 11:21AM

If you enjoyed rolling your eyes at the GOP's antic attempts to hold up Eric Holder's Senate confirmation, get ready for the Judiciary Committee hearing next week on Elena Kagan's nomination.

Kagan, the former dean of Harvard Law School, would be the first female solicitor general. She comes to the job with stellar credentials, but that hasn't stopped conservative senators (joined by the the Christian Coalition, naturally) from signaling that they intend to fight her hard on her past support for limits on military recruiters' access to law school campuses.

In fact, GOP senators have a history of blocking Kagan -- in 1999, as Judiciary panel chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) notes her, they "pocket-filibustered" her nomination to become a federal judge under Bill Clinton by refusing to hold a committee hearing.

But any Republican itching to filibuster Kagan should give a call to Brad Berenson, who worked under Alberto Gonzales as associate White House counsel to George W. Bush. He's all for Kagan. In fact, he wrote to the Judiciary Committee last week that ...

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CIA/DNI/Intelligence

Did Holder Make a Telecom Immunity Promise to Senator Bond?

Elana Schor | January 29, 2009, 11:46AM

We were amused to find yesterday that no one except Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) was buying the claim that Eric Holder made Republicans a secret promise not to prosecute Bush intelligence officials -- not senior Democrats and not Holder himself.

But Bond made another assertion to the Washington Times yesterday that would be news ... if it's true:

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Justice Department

Holder Aide: We Made No Special Promises to Bond

Elana Schor | January 28, 2009, 4:35PM

My colleague Zack at TPMmuck just heard from an aide to Attorney General nominee Eric Holder. The aide definitively denied Sen. Kit Bond's (R-MO) claim that Holder had given him "assurances" of avoiding future prosecutions of Bush intelligence officials who engaged in torturous interrogations.

"Eric Holder has not made any commitments about who would or would not be prosecuted," the aide said via e-mail. "He explained his position to Senator Bond as he did in the public hearing and in his responses to written questions."

The aide pointed to Holder's written response to a question from Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ):

Prosecutorial and investigative judgments must depend on the facts, and no one is above the law. But where it is clear that a government agent has acted in "reasonable and good-faith reliance on Justice Department legal opinions" authoritatively permitting his conduct, I would find it difficult to justify commencing a full-blown criminal investigation, let alone a prosecution.

Senate

Leading Senate Dems Dismiss Report That Holder Promised No Torture Prosecutions

Elana Schor | January 28, 2009, 3:24PM

The Washington Times reported today that Attorney General nominee Eric Holder has privately assured Sen. Kit Bond (MO) and other Republicans that the Obama DoJ will not prosecute intelligence officials who engaged in harsh interrogations.

A Bond aide told the Times that the senator "strongly considered blocking the nomination based on questions arising from some of Mr. Holder's public statements," but that Bond now planned to support the nomination after "having received assurances that [Holder] was not intent on going after intelligence officials who acted in good faith."

The implication of the piece is fairly clear: Holder promised Bond to eschew prosecutions, and Bond promised not to block his nomination. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the Judiciary Committee -- which approved Holder today -- strongly denied that such an exchange could have occurred.

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Barack Obama

Judiciary Committee Approves Holder, 17-2

Elana Schor | January 28, 2009, 11:25AM

Attorney General nominee Eric Holder was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning on a 17-2 vote.

The full Senate must sign off on Holder before he can officially join Obama's DoJ, but today's vote effectively removes the political obstacles that stood in the way of full confirmation. We'll let you know soon which two Republicans voted no on Holder.

Late Update: The two GOP nos were Sens. John Cornyn (TX) and Tom Coburn (OK).

Arlen Specter

Specter: Psych! I'll Back Holder

Elana Schor | January 27, 2009, 3:09PM

It may be time to coin the phrase "pulling a Specter," because Sen. Arlen Specter (PA), the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee, just did it again. After making a huge fuss questioning the independence of Eric Holder, Specter just caved and said he'll support the attorney general nominee.

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Senate

Specter Still Playing it Coy on Holder Nomination

Elana Schor | January 23, 2009, 2:10PM

When last we left the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, John Cornyn (TX) was taking a stand against accountability by insisting that Attorney General nominee Eric Holder promise not to prosecute any intelligence official for possible interrogation abuses at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) took a more pragmatic view of Holder's ability to promise such sweeping immunity before court action on detainee cases is complete. But where is Arlen Specter (PA), Judiciary's senior Republican, in all of this?

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