GOP Blocks Dawn Johnsen Before Recessing

By GottaLaff

There's your Candy Cane Lane, seeing that it's Christmas and all... and then there's your Memory Lane.

Remember Dawn Johnsen? She's the woman who could nail Bush? I've posted numerous times about her impending confirmation and all the stalling. And blocking. And obstructing.

Guess what:

President Obama's controversial choice to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel is spending the holidays in limbo after Senate Republicans -- in a last jab at Democrats for passing a massive health insurance bill -- blocked her nomination and five others.

If confirmed, Dawn Johnsen, a law professor at Indiana University, would be in charge of the office that formulates the attorney general's formal opinions and provides counsel on the diciest legal questions, particularly the handling of Guantanamo Bay detainees and their impending move to the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Ill.

Yes, Gitmo. And other BushCology.

The Rushpubstructionists are so full of... Christmas cheer!

Before leaving for Christmas, Sen. Patrick Leahy, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pounded Republicans for stalling on Obama's nominees, including Johnsen, Mary Smith for the Justice Department's tax department, and Christopher Schroeder, who would head to the legal policy office, among others.

"We promptly reported the president's nominees to head the Office of Legal Counsel, the Office of Legal Policy, and the Tax Division, and they each received Senate consideration in a matter of days or weeks after they were reported by the committee," Leahy said in a lengthy statement issued Wednesday.

"As with the judicial nominations, the Republicans have employed new standards of demanding a supermajority and floor time and delays to consider even nominations that could be confirmed easily, grinding our progress to a halt," he added.

Merry Blockmas.