Hmmm, this one should really take the steam out of the conservative assault on one of Obama’s top legal picks, his choice for the hot-button post of legal adviser to the State Department.
Obama’s pick, Harold Koh, has been targeted relentlessly by Glenn Beck, Fox News, right-wing bloggers and others.
But now it looks like Koh has picked up the backing of an, er, unimpeachable conservative icon: Kenneth Starr.
Koh’s conservative critics claim Koh would impose Sharia law on U.S. courts (already debunked) and would subjugate America to international law. And though it’s low profile, this is a major post: Koh, a strong Bush critic, would shape the administration’s legal policies and could undo Bush’s controversial ones — hence the campaign against him.
But now the Yale Daily News reports that Starr gave a talk at the university last week, where he announced his backing for Koh. According to witnesses, Starr said that the President and Secretary of State had the right to choose their own legal advisers and called on the Senate to defer to them.
Starr’s reported claims echo those made to me recently by another conservative icon, Bush and Reagan lawyer Theodore Olson.
Fox News and Glenn Beck versus Kenneth Starr and Theodore Olsen? Not exactly a fair fight. Hard to see where the campaign against Koh goes from here.
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