The Commission has accomplished its job of killing time for the Biden Administration while avoiding any controversy or impact.
whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/w…
Unfortunately, this law school faculty-heavy commission failed to accomplish even the opening “issue-spotting” work taught in first year in law school.
If another country had given its judicial selection over to a private, partisan group, while that partisan group was taking massive anonymous private donations, we’d have something to say about the obvious dangers of that. Not here.
If anonymous donors wrote checks for $15 million and more to influence judicial selection through dark-money political advertising campaigns, without disclosing their business before the Court, we’d have something to say about that. Not here.
Flotillas of orchestrated dark-money “amici curiae” appear before the Court without revealing who they’re fronting for; it’s serious enough for the Judicial Conference to set up a committee to examine the problem. But it’s not mentioned here.
We are up to 80 partisan 5-4 decisions from the Court that provided obvious wins for big Republican donor interests. The pattern demands explanation. You won’t find it mentioned here.
One success: they at last point to the need for a Code of Ethics applicable to Supreme Court Justices. Justices’ disclosures are weaker than executive and legislative offices’ when it should be the other way around.
Failures to recuse are unexplained. Flagrantly partisan activities are the new normal. It’s a mess.

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More from @SenWhitehouse

4 Nov
Time to act on climate: “The waters are rising.”
providencejournal.com/in-depth/news/…
And it’s not just Warren. Here’s what Bristol is looking at. eastbayri.com/stories/expert…
Check out StormTools for a complete picture of what’s coming.
…tools-mainpage-crc-uri.hub.arcgis.com
Read 4 tweets
12 Oct
The major disruptor of Earth’s basic operating systems is fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions. Making the fossil fuel industry pay a carbon pollution fee is the most effective way to stop those emissions, spur energy innovation, and turn toward safety.
The supercharged greenhouse gas disrupting Earth’s operating systems is methane, which the fossil fuel industry leaks, copiously. A methane pollution fee will virtually eliminate that leakage, fast. And we’ll be safer and healthier.
By 2050, oceans will have more plastic waste than living fish. Disposable plastic items use virtually no recycled plastic. To change that path, a plastics pollution fee can give recycling a boost and industry an incentive and seas a future.
Read 4 tweets
1 Oct
When a citizen is charged in an indictment, the indictment should confine itself to the offense charged. An indictment is a precise tool of prosecution, not an opportunity for a novella. nytimes.com/2021/09/30/us/…
DOJ’s Justice Manual instructs that “prosecutors should remain sensitive to the privacy & reputation interests of uncharged third-parties,” and extends that caution even to unindicted co-conspirators.
Uncharged, easily identified, and in a federal indictment is a tough place for these scientists to be put. Not parties to the criminal case, they have no forum to answer in.
Read 4 tweets
17 Sep
When Wray was working for Trump, we got no answers for over a year, while Republicans got a fast lane for FBI info on Crossfire Hurricane.
I was so persistent Chairman Graham even hauled in the DAG to try to get me some answers, but still Wray stonewalled.
Now at last under Biden we are starting to get answers, but information is being slow-walked and parceled out with an eyedropper.
Read 4 tweets
20 Aug
I checked. I made seven trips to Afghanistan, the first when the accommodations for us were modified shipping containers. Others were there a lot more, and gave much more; some gave all.
As we look back, I see the fatal day as when we dropped the ball in Afghanistan to pivot to the misbegotten Bush war in Iraq.
We had popularity, momentum and success in Afghanistan then, and if we had set wise parameters for stepping back, the outcome could have been different. We would not have left a little America behind, but that should never have been our goal there.
Read 6 tweets
19 Aug
“Slowly” is the operative word here. This may prove to be a case study.
washingtonpost.com/politics/biden…
We need to consider the downside of “interagency process” operating at the speed of bureaucracy, not speed of reality. We need to consider when “whole of government” becomes “hole of government” and process consumes initiative.
We need to consider what process has done to leadership and accountability — when everyone has a piece of the decision accountability evaporates. This is a problem across government right now, not limited to this debacle or to these agencies.
Read 4 tweets

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