OLC: Is Ben Nelson Using Dawn Johnsen’s Nomination To Fish For A Prize?
Other than a propensity for equivocation and Blue Doggery, Sen. Ben Nelson’s response to Dawn Johnsen’s OLC nomination has puzzled me. His primary objection — based on a footnote written in a 20+ year old legal brief of which Johnsen was not even the primary author — seemed like thin gruel for a principled stand on the merits.
And the latest from Nelson’s press secretary? Johnsen worked for NARAL.
No. You are kidding me –a pro-choice president in a pro-choice country nominated a pro-choice attorney to an office where she won’t even be dealing with abortion issues. And that’s objectionable.
It’s a mystery.
And then? I did a little digging. I think Ben Nelson is fishing:
Nelson is perhaps the Senate’s fiercest protector of subsidies for student lending institutions, which, not coincidentally, are an engine of job growth in Nebraska. He has vowed to block any effort to reduce those subsidies. And given that Democrats have 58 members and generally need 60 to break a GOP filibuster, he can enforce his will on his colleagues….Multiple congressional sources say that congressional Democrats have decided to use reconciliation to go after student-lending subsidies, specifically to get around Nelson.
Before you poo poo the idea that just because Nelson’s widdle feelings have been bruised isn’t enough of a reason to stand in the way of desperately needed rule of law reforms? There’s this:
Nelson is a DINO (Democrat In Name Only), there’s no doubt about it. Novak and others have talked about how Nelson has long been targeted by the GOP for defection, and the LA Times ran an article today saying that "the administration sees Sen. Ben Nelson as crucial to its efforts in advancing legislation that would restructure Social Security." They go on to talk about how Nelson and his wife have been socializing with the Bush’s of late, riding on Air Force One and watching movies with them.
Sen. Nelson has been tougher on the Obama administration’s nominees than he ever was during the Bush years. Funny that.
When I said on Wednesday that this is a failure of leadership, this is what I was getting at. If you want something to happen in DC, there are ways of making it happen. But you have to do the foundation work.
Unlike those of us who are "true believers" in doing what’s just and standing up for the rule of law? Elected folks are far more likely to be true believers in doing whatever it takes to get themselves re-elected. And to do that?
Image, including proximity to power and feeding the local trough, is everything.
People in the Obama Administration and the Senate Democratic leadership know this. Hell, they got into those positions by horse-trading on it all the way to the top. The sad fact of the matter is that this is how business is done, day in and day out, inside the Beltway. To achieve an objective, you first have to make it a priority — make it known that it is, and that you are willing to address "concerns" up to a point, or twist arms painfully when that isn’t an option.
It’s the reason Rahm Emmanuel was brought in as Chief of Staff — his purpose in life is to be "the enforcer."
If Ben Nelson is getting away with this wayward fishing expedition, it’s because he thinks it can be successful. And he hasn’t been reined in, pure and simple, because Dawn Johnsen’s nomination has not been enough of a priority to waste political capitol on it up to now.
Our job is to make the price for not doing so higher than the benign neglect we’ve been seeing. Because the rule of law ought not be a trinket for sale. Ideas?
Here’s one: The Memorial Day recess is coming up. Is it time to rev up the "You Work For Us Summer Tour" again?
I hadn’t heard this – good !