Justice for sale

If Rahm Emanuel is actually deciding what sort of trial KSM et. al. should get on the basis of what he calculates would be most politically convenient for the Obama administration, then the only honorable thing for Eric Holder to do is to resign. It's every bit as illegitmate for the White House to order Holder what to do in this matter as it was for Richard Nixon to order Elliott Richardson to fire Archibald Cox. Barack Obama (let alone his messenger boy Emanuel -- or is the other way around?) is not the nation's chief law enforcement officer: Eric Holder is. Holder has spent the last three months telling everyone that considerations of basic justice argued for trying KSM in our regular courts, rather than in military tribunals set up for the purpose of disposing of particularly troublesome criminal cases.

When Richardson and his deputy William Ruckelshaus were ordered to do something perfectly legal but also perfectly disgraceful, they resigned (their underling Robert Bork had no such scruples).

It's simply outrageous for White House officials to make prosecutorial decisions of this sort, and in this manner. It's essentially no different than having Rahm Emanuel order the DOJ to indict certain persons, against the better judgment of government's top lawyers, because such indictments are calculated to improve his boss's political fortunes. Or is that the next step in the administration's ongoing "pragmatic" accomodation to the worst impulses of the American political system?

See also Scott Horton:

In sharp violation of rules of prosecutorial conduct and ethics, political figures in the White House are engaged in the micromanagement of decisions concerning the prosecution of individual criminal defendants. Rahm Emanuel is a political figure, without any serious legal expertise or abilities. He openly presented the question as a matter of political opportunity—thereby infecting the criminal justice system with political horse-trading. This is more than just unseemly. It presents a direct affront to the integrity of the criminal justice system. After eight years in which Karl Rove manipulated essential prosecutorial decisions at Justice, now his successor is engaged in the same type of misconduct. But unlike Rove, Emanuel does it openly.

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Law as politics

Thoughts on Obama getting uppity with the SCOTUS.

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Instant Reaction: Bloggingheads Style

Last night, I diavlogged with Matt Duss on the subject of the Obama speech:

As this suggests, I'm pretty ambivalent about the escalation.

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A Real Shift?

Mr. Trend mounts a defense:

And while you can and should argue that in many ways, Obama's policies reflect a return to Bill Clinton's, I don't think that holds in the case of international relations. Obama has proven himself much more open and reasoned in his policy making than even Clinton did. It's about more than just being willing to talk to Chavez face-to-face at a meeting of the OAS, or have Bill Clinton pull some tricky negotiations to release hostages in North Korea, or find a path that the entire international community is willing to follow in dealing with Iran. Indeed, one simply has to look at Honduras since June. Obama has taken an approach to Latin American coups that the U.S. has never seen before - an open, non-partisan condemnation of what was clearly an illegal removal of a president, combined with a refusal to get directly involved by sending troops in. The U.S. had done this any number of times before, and every time, it was wrong to do so. For once, Obama relied on diplomacy, and even while condemning the actions, has refused to directly interfere in Honduras. Sure, he's had the State department take measures to restrict the aid and cash flow to Honduras from the U.S., but that's within his prerogative as president, all the while respecting Honduran sovereignty.

That sounds simple, unimportant; but from a history where the U.S. basically took every opportunity to meddle in, interfere with, and even directly undo democratic processes in Latin America from 1846 to 2002, this is a major, major shift. And it's representative of Obama's policies thus far - respect, doing what's within his power without overstepping the sovereignty of others, all the while working to maintain global relations. Honduras isn't the reason; it's symptomatic of the broader, subtle, but major shifts in how the U.S. is forging a new path in its diplomatic history under Obama.

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You Go to Sleep, Then You Wake Up, and Wha Huh?

Say what now?

In a stunning surprise, the Nobel Committee announced Friday that it had awarded its annual peace prize to President Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

Less than nine months after he took office, the committee said, Mr. Obama “has created a new international climate.”

With American forces deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Obama’s name had not figured in speculation about the winner until minutes before the prize was announced here.

Next: Barack Obama, AL Cy Young winner?

....You know, if Obama were the anti-christ, he'd probably be winning a Nobel Peace Prize about right now. I'm just sayin'...

...obviously missed Dave's post on the same subject.

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It's About Time That I've Voted for a Nobel Laureate

What the hell? I seriously thought it was a joke when I got back from teaching International Relations 503 for two hours to read this. He's been President for five minutes, and he is sort of more or less administering a couple of wars (which admittedly he inherited).

I'm sure the others will offer more in-depth observations in the coming hours for which I currently do not have the time to do, but I wanted to flag this to get the ball rolling.

I seriously look forward to the wingnuts going fantastically mental over this.

(NB: we don't have a Nobel Peace Prize tag, so I went with the closest thing below . . . )

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