Bowl of cherries? via silkegb.

Not to get all cocky or anything…because lord knows we can’t depend on the likes of Joe Lieberman (I-Party of One) or the newly minted Arlen Specter (D-Haggis).

But even with the jello-spined and treacherous among us, this recent bit of news on "the math" starts making the GOP Senate oppo on Dawn Johnsen look like kabuki dinner theater.

What’s this bit of good news on the Dawn Johnsen front, you ask? Let’s call it getting tougher to filibuster when people like Richard Lugar say things like this:

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said Tuesday he will support the nomination of an Indiana University law professor to head the Obama administration’s internal law office.

He is the first Republican to publicly declare his backing for Dawn Johnsen, whose selection to head the Office of Legal Counsel has grown into a fight about abortion rights and counterterrorism practices.

The article also mentions that Sen. Ben Nelson has said he won’t likely support Johnsen’s nomination. But I have it from a couple of well-placed sources on the Hill that Nelson intends, at least at this point, to vote FOR cloture. Which makes "the math" for GOP filibuster threats seem more tenuous, doesn’t it?

And where one GOP Senator jumps off the sinking ship, will more follow? Olympia Snowe? Judd Gregg? Susan Collins? Orrin Hatch? Who’ll be next? (more…)

Empty plate via kmevans.

The GOPeevish keep jacking up the nopes. Look what all their empty gestures are getting for the American public.

Exhibit A: That swine flu epidemic that may or may not be headed across the globe? Wondering why we don’t yet have a CDC Director? Effect? Meet cause:

CDC is an agency on organizational hold, with an Acting Director. As public health professionals they are doing a heroic job, but they depend on DHHS, of which they are a part, for building government-to-government relationships….[and] there is still no Secretary of DHHS. Obama’s nominee, the highly capable administrator Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, has had her confirmation held up by Republican ideologues playing abortion politics.

If ever there was a time when we needed strong leadership at DHHS, this is it. Playing politics has consequences.

Pandemic preparedness? Another GOP casualty. Dude, where’s my planning? 

Exhibit B: How’s that OLC vacuum working for the nation?

“George Bush used this office to provide the legal justifications for torture and illegal spying. Because of Dawn’s courageous opposition to those policies, the right wing wants to block her confirmation. But we can’t let them,” Turner says, according to a transcript of the phone call distributed by PFAW.

Social conservatives say whatever the reasons Republican senators give for opposing her nomination, Johnsen has given a boost to their troops.

“The outside groups are fired up,” said one senior Republican aide.

Exhibit C: When at first you don’t succeed? Lie, lie again:

Bond: First Carl I would say that there’s a very strong dissent from five members of your committee who said that your report was fallacious…

Levin: I’ve got to answer that one thing because I’m chairman of the committee. There was no objection to this report. Seven Republicans were there when we voted on it. Not one dissented. We had months and months of opportunity for any dissenting views. That’s the report. It’s a unanimous report of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

It’s all kabuki, all of it.  It has nothing to do with the good of the nation.  (more…)

Nice hat via swanky.

NOTE:  We have a live chat with ACLU’s Jameel Jaffer today at 3 pm ET/12 pm PT.

Honestly, why on earth do they let John Cornyn anywhere near a reporter to pretend to discuss anything substantive?

"I just don’t think she’s qualified for the job," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. "First of all, she’s an ideologue … she has actually questioned whether we are actually at war against terrorists. She questioned whether the wartime paradigm that the president is the commander-in-chief was the appropriate framework of analysis for determining what the president’s powers are during a time of war."

I can see how Dawn’s years of work at OLC, where she was universally respected by her colleagues and even opposing politicos and commenters, and did an exemplary job already running the office as acting head for a year and a half would make her seem really unqualified to Mr. Empty Hair. Especially when he and his cronies can lie about her record and have too few people call them out on it.

But having Cornyn call her an ideologue after his garbled kabuki shows the last few years?   Beyond laughable.

Cornyn is the poster boy for "whatever you want, Mr. Cheney."

What’s Cornyn’s real beef — and that of the GOP establishment? That Dawn supports the rule of law.  That she takes the job and her responsibilities in it seriously, meaning that she isn’t the sort of person who puts shortcuts and shading to further personal ambitions ahead of doing the right thing and following the written precedents. 

In other words, unlike some people, Dawn isn’t the kind of gal who can be bought off or shut up. And Cornyn no likey that.  This is all about GOP CYA and the kabuki to cover it.

Why is OLC important?  I’ll let ACS’ Peter Shane explain:

Perhaps the most important reason we have government lawyers is to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” even when laws are ambiguous and especially when no one is looking. If the rule of law is to have any meaning, government lawyers playing an advisory function must take a relatively objective stance….It is critical that government lawyers remember that their “client” is the American people, and not the ephemeral roster of incumbent federal officer holders.

There it is in a nutshell:  putting the public’s interest ahead of political kabuki.  Hence the fear and stall tactics from Cornyn and company:

The pressure to kill the Johnsen nomination may become even stronger now that President Obama has released more OLC memos detailing the CIA’s abusive interrogation tactics last week.

Let’s not let them get away with it.  The stakes are too high.

Please call or FAX Harry Reid’s office and tell him to get on the ball and schedule a vote for Dawn Johnsen: Phone: 202-224-3542 / Fax: 202-224-7327. It is well past time that Democratic leadership started leading on this.

Please call your Senators today. Tell them to vote YES on cloture and to vote YES on Dawn’s nomination.

The rule of law cannot take a back seat to political manipulation. And it’s past time these people realized that. (more…)

Boy, wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall when Jane Harman runs into John Kerry after this choice bit from Jeff Stein: According to two officials privy to the events, Gonzales said he “needed Jane” to help support the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was about to be exposed by the New York Times. Harman, he told Goss, had helped persuade the newspaper to hold the wiretap story before, on the eve of the 2004 elections.

It doesn’t take a whiz (*rim shot here*) to see the GOP strategy on legal nominations. With a threat to filibuster Dawn Johnsen’s nomination to OLC, the Harold Koh smearing, and now Indiana judge David Hamilton, Specter has become the point man for GOP piss and moan.

Huge kudos for Sen. Byron Dorgan.  Because he has more than earned them with this interview with Rachel Maddow: “There’s a culture, and the culture is that ‘Wall Street knows best.’ You know, there were only eight of us in the United States Senate that voted no. This was a huge deal to repeal the protections that were put in place after the Great Depression — a huge deal. Eight of us voted no.”

With the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act (H.R. 1106) and the protections for VA and FHA loans on hold pending more debate, the folks at Brave New Foundation have put together a tiny glimpse into the life of one homeowner whose home was foreclosed. The discussion includes interviews with mortgage industry insiders who discuss some of the myriad ways that short-term, quickie profit margins were put ahead of honesty

So many things to research, mock and snark about, so little time: Attaturk made me spew my coffee this morning. Bastard. And John Cole followed up with marketing advice for morans. Be sure to watch the Daily Show video at the end. Digby has a problem with moles.