McCarthy, in his case against Johnsen, recounted her OLC record, one that the New York Times, for one, chose to overlook. McCarthy exposed the "particularly rich" hypocrisy of Johnsen's recent condemnations of the Bush administration's use of executive authority, showing how she ardently defended Clinton's will to power when his administration did such things as "(invent) extraordinary rendition, (detain) Cuban refugees without trial at Guantanamo Bay, (conduct) warrantless national-security searches, and (attack) a foreign country without congressional authorization." But after Bush took similar measures to protect the country, Johnsen cried foul.
It's getting to be a tired refrain, but it's abundantly clear that a Republican nominee with Johnsen's past would be roundly thrashed by the pundits and the public (probably unfairly and slanderously so, if recent history is any indication). Instead, led by the lefty cheerleaders at the gray lady, we're engaged in a bout of knee-jerk Bush-bashing, while important questions such as who Johnson is and what she's said and done go unexamined.
If Obama aims to de-politicize the Justice Department, as he claims, by selecting Johnsen he has picked an ideologue who would absolutely do just the opposite. (On Johnsen's priority list: Making sure that candidates for Bush-era DOJ positions who were passed over for leaning left get "special consideration" in the Obama administration.)
Johnsen's nomination has been moved out of the Senate Judicial Committee on a party-line vote and awaits a full-Senate test. She'll need 60 votes to get confirmed. Remembering the circus foisted upon so many George W. Bush nominees, it's hard to believe that Republicans and moderate Democrats will let her sail through to the OLC.
Or so I have the audacity to hope.
The un-radicalism of the Obama administration is an untruth. And Johnsen's nomination plays a significant role in exposing the "moderate Obama" myth that many Americans have bought into -- most recently the Catholic University of Notre Dame, which is providing the president cover for his anti-life initiatives by letting him speak at its commencement this May.
It shouldn't be unusual to expect honesty about Johnsen, or to expect the Senate to take a close look at her. But we should consider President Obama's increasingly radical moves very unusual indeed.