NYT editorial: Politics 1, Rule of Law 0

The struggle between President Obama and Republicans on Capitol Hill has claimed a fresh victim — Dawn Johnsen. She was Mr. Obama’s choice to lead the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department. Ms. Johnsen withdrew her nomination after more than a year. It was clear that the White House was not going to fight to save her from Republicans who were refusing to allow a vote on her confirmation.

Ms. Johnsen’s problem was not that she lacked strong qualifications to be the legal adviser to the executive branch, informing the White House about what the law requires and what it prohibits. She was the ideal candidate to re-establish the Office of Legal Counsel as a source of scrupulous legal analysis after its complicity in some of the worst excesses of the Bush years.

Ms. Johnsen, a law professor at Indiana University, spent five years in the office under President Bill Clinton, including a period as the acting chief. When word leaked several years ago of a memo that gave the green light to torture, she joined in a statement of principles signed by more than a dozen former lawyers from the office. In the best tradition of the Office of Legal Counsel and the legal profession, it called for more transparency and greater respect for Congress and the courts.

Despite Ms. Johnsen’s stellar credentials and the backing of Senator Richard Lugar, a Republican of Indiana, other Republicans tried to turn her commitment to the rule of law into a phony debate about her commitment to fighting terrorism. Her critics also complained that, early in her career, she worked for an abortion-rights advocacy group, though her views in that sphere are well within the mainstream.

(Original here.)