Dawn Johnson has withrawn her nomination for Office of Legal Counsel. She cites the delays in confirming her nomination.

Unfortunately, my nomination has met with lengthy delays and political opposition that threaten that objective and prevent OLC from functioning at full strength. I hope that the withdrawal of my nomination will allow this important office to be filled promptly."

Senators say the votes weren't there. Ben Nelson, a Dem, opposed her, and even though Richard Lugar, a Republican, supported her, there was concern about a filibuster.

Seems to me like Obama could have pushed harder for her. She should have been confirmed.

Schapelle Corby, imprisoned in Indonesia for 20 years after being convicted of smuggling 4 kilos of marijuana into Bali, has filed a clemency petition with the Indonesian Government which alleges, as has been reported many times the past few years, she has gone insane.

Finally, the Australian Government is supporting her:

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said yesterday that Canberra would support "any application by Ms Corby for clemency".

"I have made that clear to Ms Corby's family," he said. "[However] it is important to bear in mind that the decision to grant clemency is for the President of Indonesia."

It's long past time to send Shapelle home. Our prior coverage since the time of her arrest in 2005 is assembled here.

Update: I've uploaded the Complaint here.

The Times of London has obtained a sworn declaration of Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell when Powell was Secretary of State for the Bush Administration, stating that Bush and Cheney knowingly sent innocent detainees to Guantanamo, for political reasons. He says they knew the majority of the detainees were innocent, but they sent them anyway as a means of garnering support for the war in Iraq and war on terror.

The declaration was submitted to the court in a lawsuit filed yesterday by former Sudanese detainee Adel Hassan Hamad, who alleges he was tortured. Hamad is seeking monetary damages from the U.S. and filed his lawsuit in federal district court in Seattle, because Robert Gates, one of the defendants, resides there. It is the first time a former official in the Bush Administration has made such a claim claim.

The Times reports Colin Powell backs Wilkerson's declaration. [More...]

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) is calling it quits in November. He's had enough of the obscene phone calls from "tea-partiers" over his health care bill shenanigans and won't seek re-election.

Stupak told The Hill newspaper a week before the bill's passage that fighting the measure had been "a living hell" and that obscene calls to his home had forced his wife to unplug the phones.

From the Hill:

“All the phones are unplugged at our house — tired of the obscene calls and threats. She won’t watch TV,” Stupak said during the interview. “People saying they’re going to spit on you and all this. That’s just not fun.” Stupak's wife had reported receiving death threats.

I doubt anyone is sorry to see him go, but it also shouldn't go unnoticed how infantile and crass the anti-choice movement can get. Until they grow up and learn how to behave -- which includes responding with reasoned arguments from their brain instead of taunts and threats from their potty mouths and trigger fingers, no one should be considering them for anything but kindergarten.

Many legal observers expect the President to nominate Solicitor General Elena Kagan to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. As expected, an early salvo has been provided by Glenn Greenwald:

The danger that we won't have such a status-quo-maintaining selection is three-fold: (1) Kagan, from her time at Harvard, is renowned for accommodating and incorporating conservative views, the kind of "post-ideological" attribute Obama finds so attractive; (2) for both political and substantive reasons, the Obama White House tends to avoid (with a few exceptions) any appointees to vital posts who are viewed as "liberal" or friendly to the Left; the temptation to avoid that kind of nominee heading into the 2010 midterm elections will be substantial (indeed, The New York Times' Peter Baker wrote last month of the candidates he said would be favored by the Left: "insiders doubt Mr. Obama would pick any of them now"); and (3) Kagan has already proven herself to be a steadfast Obama loyalist with her work as his Solicitor General, and the desire to have on the Court someone who has demonstrated fealty to Obama's broad claims of executive authority is likely to be great.

I think this is a misreading of Kagan. I will try and offer a cogent rebuttal in the next few days. But in the meantime, Greenwald begins to develop what will be the principal case against Kagan from the Left - her supposed fealty to Executive Branch power. I think this misreads Kagan. I'll try to persuade you tomorrow.

Speaking for me only

Senator Pat Leahy, Judiciary Committee Chair:

When the Supreme Court recesses on Justice Stevens’ final day on the bench, it will mark the end of an extraordinary judicial career spanning four decades, including 35 years on our highest court.

The last Justice from “the Greatest Generation,” John Paul Stevens first answered the call to service when he joined the Navy during World War II. Our nation called on him again years later, and he returned to public service as an appellate judge before accepting President Ford’s nomination to serve on the Supreme Court. He has since become one of the longest serving Justices on the Court. His confirmation was the first of a dozen Supreme Court nominations I have considered in my years in the Senate. As a young, freshman senator, it was a privilege to support his confirmation in 1975.

[MORE . . .]

The AP and MSNBC are reporting that Justice John Paul Stevens will be retiring this year from the SCOTUS. From the SFChronicle.

Let me be the first to say NO TO SUNSTEIN!

Also, a proper tribute post to Justice Stevens, who was an excellent Justice imo, will be forthcoming in a few days.

The only matter I have any familiarity with from last week is the Masters and Tiger Woods' much ballyhooed return. Tiger proved yet again he is the greatest golfer who ever lived. First tournament back and he is hitting it great and putting it great. His short game is not all there yet but boy, with the pressure he was under - what a performance.

I never rooted for Tiger. Always a contrarian, I can't be for the individual or team everybody else roots for. (Everybody hates the Yankees and the Gators so don't try to compare them to Tiger.) But I am sort of rooting for Tiger here (though Lefty is still the guy I am rooting for to win it.) Tiger the person? I do not know him. What his wife thinks about him is between him and his wife. Tiger the golfer? He was pretty remarkable yesterday. Of course so was Tom Watson, Fred Couples and Lefty is right there too. It should be a great weekend of golf.

This is an Open Thread.

Cameron Douglas, the 31 year old son of Michael Douglas and his former wife, Diandra Douglas, will be sentenced on April 14 for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of crystal meth and more than 5 kilograms of cocaine. The charges carry a ten year mandatory minimum sentence, which the judge can depart from if the Government files a motion stating he has cooperated and provided information that is helpful to the investigation or prosecution of others. (The Judge can also depart or vary from the guidelines, but can't go under the mandatory minimum unless the Government makes the motion.)

Douglas' lawyers have filed a 119 page sentencing memorandum, which includes many letters from his immediate family, family friends and his own friends. There are a lot of redactions. Given the number of sealed documents on the docket, and his lawyers' request for either a sentence of time served or 42 months, it's apparent the Government will be filing a request for a reduction under the 10 year mandatory minimum for his cooperation.

That leaves the guidelines, which the Judge can depart or vary from for any number of reasons. Having read the 119 page memo, the original Complaint and the details of his bond revocation proceedings, here are some thoughts: [More...]

Big Tent Democrat is en route home and will be back posting tomorrow.

TV seems like re-runs tonight, so after Survivor, I'm going start watching Season 2 of Breaking Bad which arrived from Netflix.

Keith Olbermann just joined Twitter. He already has 5,200 folllowers. Will he have anything interesting to say? Doesn't seem like his medium, but who knows. If there's something going on you'd like to discuss, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Huffington Post has launched a Twitter edition for 19 of its sections. Here's the politics section. It's not just a twitter feed. It's got articles with photos at the top and then sections of twitterers divided by categories (e.g., reporters in one, pundits in another) and then a section "What's Hot on Twitter" also with graphics. For breaking news, I love it. Fewer clicks than using Twitter itself, and you can really see what's happening right now.

On Twitter itself, there's too many people jut tweeting a headline and unless you click through, you don't know that. This way you can get to the actual news and updates much faster (as well as what people are saying about it, which isn't as interesting to me as the news itself.)

Nice work, Huffpo.

So, Qatari diplomat Mohammed Al-Madadi, believed to have been sneaking a smoke during a flight to Denver, was en route to the prison at Florence, Colorado to check on the welfare of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a Qatari citizen convicted of terrorism. (Plea Agreement here.)From the BOP website:

ALI SALEH KAHLAH AL-MARRI
#12194-026
44-White-M
01-18-2015
FLORENCE HIGH USP

Al-Marri was originally held in the South Carolina brig as an enemy combatant and transferred to civilian custody when he was indicted in Illinois for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. He pleaded guilty was sentenced and is serving his time in Florence.

That's a perfectly proper basis for a visit. It's an important role of consular officials -- checking the welfare of citizens imprisoned in other countries. Al Marri had previously complained of abusive treatment. [More...]