1 Boring Old Man

Dawn E. Johnsen withdraws bid for confirmation to Justice Dept. post
By Associated Press
April 10, 2010

President Obama’s nominee to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has withdrawn her bid for confirmation after languishing for more than a year without a Senate vote. In announcing her decision Friday, Dawn E. Johnsen cited "lengthy delays and political opposition."

Obama tapped Johnsen in March 2009 to head the Justice division, an office made famous during George W. Bush’s administration as the place where controversial memos on executive power, waterboarding of terrorism suspects and warrantless eavesdropping won support. But several Republicans objected to Johnsen over her criticism of the Bush administration’s interrogation policies. And moderate lawmakers expressed concern over her legal work for an abortion rights group and her positions on certain national security issues. The full Senate never voted on her nomination.

Johnsen, who led the office in an interim capacity during the Clinton administration, has been outspoken about what she called overly expansive views of executive power that the Justice Department has adopted in recent years. In congressional testimony in 2008, Johnsen said legal interpretations were "tainted by the administration’s desired policy ends and overriding objective of expanding presidential power."

White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said Friday that Obama "believes it is time for the Senate to move beyond politics and allow the Office of Legal Counsel to serve the role it was intended to – to provide impartial legal advice and constitutional analysis to the executive branch." In a statement, Johnsen said: "Restoring OLC to its best nonpartisan traditions was my primary objective for my anticipated service in this administration. Unfortunately, my nomination has met with lengthy delays and political opposition that threaten that objective and prevent OLC from functioning at full strength."

Johnsen’s nomination had been stalled so long that she resumed teaching courses at Indiana University, commuting between Bloomington and the Washington area.

Dawn Johnsen is a Constitutional Law Professor at Indiana University who has been active in the A.C.L.U. and in the Pro-Choice movement – a liberal feminist. She was also an outspoken critic of how the Bush Administration used the Office of Legal Counsel – an office she served in during the Clinton Administration. Her nomination to head the Office of Legal Counsel by President Obama was widely hailed as a Progressive milestone. There was a window [Specter to Brown] when she might have been confirmed, but that window has closed. Some Progressives blame Obama [The Inevitable Sacking Of The Dawn Johnsen Nomination]. Others blame the Republicans [Dawn Johnsen, Key Obama Justice Nominee, Withdraws Her Nomination]. I want to blame the Federalist Society and the Religious Right for making everything judicial hinge on the opinions of the person about  few specific issues, not their devotion to the Law.

What I actually really think is that the appointment of ideologues, theirs or ours, isn’t what’s going to resolve the pressing problems of today. To me, it seems like we’re currently in a war over which solution is right, without having a coherent notion about what’s in need of being solved. I sometimes think it’s 9/11. At other times, I think 9/11 is just an event that symbolizes something else – a moment representing something broader. 20th Century America is an anachronism and what’s happening now feels like a montage of 20th Century American history being played out in camera until such time when 21st Century America figures out where we are and how we fit into the world story. We’re a 20th Century Superpower trying to avoid dealing with being a 21st Century just one of the guys.