Over the last year or so -- 358 days, to be exact -- we've posted periodically about the failure to bring to full Senate vote the nomination of our colleague Dawn Johnsen (left) to become head of the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice.Dawn's eminently qualified for the post; indeed, she served as acting head during the Clinton Administration. She's a super lawyer and legal academic, and was a vocal opponent of OLC memoranda that sanctioned waterboarding and other post-9/11 interrogation practices. Her IntLawGrrls guest post concerned that very issue.
Now TPM's reporting that this round of her nomination is at an end, that the Senate sent back her nomination, "presumably" because Senators were "unable to achieve universal agreement" necessary by their rules to carry her nomination over to next year's legislative session. It's now up to President Barack Obama to decide whether to resubmit her name for the post.
Today we stop the nomination clock we've run in our righthand column for months, pending further word from the White House.
