Breaking the Chains

Barack Obama has signaled a needed change in direction with his new legal picks and CIA head. Choosing Elena Kagan, Dean of the Harvard Law School, as the new Solicitor General, Dawn Johnsen as head of the Assistant Attorneys General of the Office of Legal Counsel, David Ogden as Deputy Attorneys General, and Tom Perrelli as Associate Attorneys General, he has indicated a new direction for the Department of Justice. Dawn Johnsen, in particular, has been extremely forceful in her critiques of torture and renditions. Notably, she took John Yoo to task for his interpretations of the law that justified such acts.

Restoring the rule of law and the perception of integrity to the Justice Department will be monumental tasks given what has happened for the past eight years under the "unitary executive." These appointments signal a step forward. Instead of seeking to justify torture and breaking the law in the name of security, these individuals promise an effort to restore values and principles to DOJ.

The nomination of Leon Panetta to head the CIA has already drawn fire from within the Democratic Party. Please note that many of these Democrats who are questioning the Panetta nomination are the same Dems who rolled over on the Bush Administration's destruction of the Constitution. When it came to warrantless wiretaps, renditions, the Patriot Act, and torture, the Democratic leadership couldn't roll over fast enough.

Diane Feinstein, for example, apparently is piqued that she wasn't consulted, and has stated that she thinks there needs to be someone in the position who has experience. Too bad Feinstein wasn't as upset about Bush rewriting the Constitution without her consultation as she is about this nomination.

The time when we should have worried about the direction of the CIA should have been ten years ago, or fifty years ago. The damage that has been done to the reputation of this country by our intelligence agencies cannot be underestimated. The fact that Panetta has "no experience" in the intelligence community should be viewed as a necessity, not a drawback. The CIA has clearly become a failed organization that is a shame on the nation. Only a clean break can begin to reverse this tide.