Obama Backs Sunshine For Secret Legal Memos
I know I wasn't the only one troubled by the president-elect's interview with ABC News yesterday, when he was asked about adopting a uniform, torture-free military interrogation standard and replied (emphasis mine): "...And if our top army commanders feel comfortable with interrogation techniques that are squarely within the boundaries of rule of law..."
But this is certainly a good sign. From Politico:
Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) said he's been informed that President Obama will support his proposed legislation to make public some opinions from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which issued some of the Bush Administration's most sweeping claims of executive power. Obama also has promised to limit President Bush's practice of using "signing statements" to amend legislation.
Here's a link to the Library of Congress' summary of Feingold's bill, which was passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last year with one cosponsor -- brace yourselves, liberals, it was the oft-maligned Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). The legislation would essentially require Congress to be notified when any justice department releases a legal memo interpreting the constitutionality of federal statutes or exempting the president from any newly passed law.
Coming three days after the Bush DoJ's Office of Legal Counsel released a last gasp of abusive, ill-advised, law-stretching secret memos, this is a welcome sign.















Is this a bill that will only be used going forward, or can it look backwards as well?
January 12, 2009 7:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Elana,
I'm back to TPM after a gap. Totally disconnected query.
Why do you guys still have the electoral map appearing on election central?
I'm sure most of us wouldn't mind not having the applet to load every time we click a story link.
January 12, 2009 7:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
very good question. basically we're about to completely relaunch the site, with a new name and more to capture it's new focus. and we've just left the current set up sort of in place.
January 12, 2009 10:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
No kiddin'? (As Sarah would have said) Hardly, I can wait. (Okay, Yoda probably wouldn't have said it that way)
Nice job with the site through the election, Josh. I've really enjoyed it. I'm not going anywhere, in case, as the networks used to implore... never mind.
January 13, 2009 1:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
...brace yourselves, liberals, it was the oft-maligned Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
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DiFi has a lot to make up for. I'll check with Jello Biafra to see if this is enough.
Diane banker-buttlicker Margaret Thatcher Feinstein, the dragon lady with no heart
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January 12, 2009 8:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
That was was seriously funny in the context of... right you knew that... very good... carry on... jello.. haha.. I love Jello Biafra...
January 13, 2009 1:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Of course, how stupid of me... I just noticed that your nym is an actual grateful dead lyric... omg... so now you know I'm not actually that stupid... or maybe just I know... whatever... I like this video... how's that?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLDw_gj5e3g
January 13, 2009 1:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
I kind of like having the election map still up - its like having a picture of that large striped bass I caught hanging up on the wall - it reminds me of very happy moment , a very important moment in time -when the world was a beautiful place to be ..
January 13, 2009 5:10 AM | Reply | Permalink