Obama's OLC nom: ‘We must regain our ability to feel outrage whenever our government acts lawlessly'

:wow:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/05/dawn-johnsen-nomination/


Obama’s OLC nominee: ‘We must regain our ability to feel outrage whenever our government acts lawlessly.’»


President-elect Barack Obama announced today that Dawn Johnsen will serve as the next Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). Salon’s Glenn Greenwald calls the pick “Obama’s best yet, perhaps by far.” As evidence, Greenwald highlights an article in Slate that Johnsen authored last year, in which she excoriated John Yoo’s infamous torture memo:





Johnsen also criticized the Democratic Congress for legalizing Bush’s surveillance program. She also wrote passionately about restoring our “nation’s honor” by condemning “our nation’s past transgressions” and rejecting “Bush’s corruption of our American ideals.”

Update: Tim Fernholz notes that Johnsen's recently written articles are entitled Faithfully Executing the Laws: Internal Legal Constraints on Executive Power and What's a President to Do? Interpreting the Constitution in the Wake of the Bush Administration's Abuses.

Initially, it was outrage... and over time turned into responses like "so what's new" or "no surprise here" or "yawn".

I supported Obama BECAUSE he spoke of accountability and transparency of an open government. I've been disappointed by those picks of players who have been part of the DC powerstructure community and who have long sided with closed government, its secrecy and its privilege.

no one has anything to bitch about with this selection.

over more liberal appointees.

and it seems so odd to me...
since fighting against something rarely works...
while working for something you want has such power.

When was the last time we had a liberal President? Probably before many people on DU were politically active or even born. They don't know how to do anything but react to the bad.

someone will come along and prove your comment wrong :(

We are really moving in the right direction! :woohoo:

some reading to do!

or at least not enough for it to make a difference.

Folks are so busy lining up in the threads where they can pronounce Obama not enough of this or enough of that prematurely, that the stuff they might approve of will never be sufficient.

They encourage the negative criticism without promoting the positive even when they could. And yet chastise some of us who are doing due-patience even after 8 long years.

And I like Panetta.

:kick:

Me Likey.

and deserves applauding. I'm so glad the Justice dept will actually have law-abiding appointees!

It has been a very long time.

a good pick.

Here's to doing a great job Dawn Johnsen!

:toast:

:kick:

Color me unsurprised and pleased.

No surprise that this thread has sunk...it is good news.

Finally an appointment that I am satisfied with. It would be nice if she was more than an assistant attorney general.

really

I think I'm in love. :loveya:

kick. this is good news.