I strongly urge you to reconsider your position, especially as a new Democrat, and vote to confirm Dawn Johnsen’s nomination to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. She is eminently qualified and spoke out against the abuses of power that put such a dark stain on our Constitution and our nation’s reputation in the previous eight years. She will stand in stark contrast to the conduct of John Yoo and Stephen Bradbury, whose leadership in, and influence over, the OLC in the previous eight years has been so disastrous.

Further, I urge you to speak to Senator Reid and ask him to hold a straight up or down vote on this nomination. We had an election last November, and President Obama won it. He is entitled to have his nominees voted on by the Senate. The use of a threat of a filibuster should not be enough to sink a nomination when more than the half the Senate would vote to confirm. I ask you to speak with Senator Reid and encourage him to call the bluff of those threatening such a filibuster. Make the Republicans actually filibuster, instead of merely threatening it. Their obstruction is especially galling considering their insistence on up or down votes for nominees during the Bush administration.

We need leaders like Dawn Johnsen to help us return to being a nation that values the rule of law. I ask you again to vote to confirm her, and to speak with your colleagues in the Senate, especially Senators Reid and Durbin, about the need to have Dawn Johnsen confirmed.

Another question I have is, who is running ‘their’ game these days? Clearly not Steele, Rush doesn’t have the grasp of the big picture or the finesse, maybe PapaDick? Newtie? Or is it all on autopilot?

Pathetic that both sides do not seem interested in a strong Justice system.

Johnson is a very professional choice and is direly needed in the Justice Dept.

Yeah, I’m just going to take a vacation from being pissed at them & fire off a bunch of e-mails as requested. The effectiveness of my correspondence on all of the above issues has been SO effective, I’m sure this time it will do the trick.

UPDATE: I have one question for the great fighter-leader, Harry Reid: during Reid’s tenure as Majority Leader, Michael Mukasey was confirmed as Bush’s Attorney General with a grand total of 53 Senate votes. How come Dawn Johnsen “needs 60 votes” or else she’ll be rejected?

The administration’s “hard liners” and Cheney holdovers (of which there are far too many still) are probably arguing for a “go slow until Franken’s in the Senate”. I imagine that includes Reid, who’s never shown much interest in actually doing the job he worked so hard to get. Not because with Franken’s vote they can get what they want, but as an excuse to avoid appointing a strong, forthright personality like Johnsen. When Franken’s seated, they’ll gin up another excuse.

If nothing else, this episode alone is the poster child for why we need to rid the party of as many Blue Dogs as possible, and to fight for Democratic leadership worthy of the name.