Posted on 10/10/2016 4:17:25 PM PDT by Riflema
Good morning, Valerie:
The word “congratulations” is much too banal. The thrill hasn’t remotely begun to wear off. I’ve never felt more hopeful about our political future. I want to dedicate all my talents and energies to helping Barack seize the arc of history. Nothing matters to me more. After this message, I’ve pasted in a short piece I published in Forbes.com (which appeared yesterday as the first item on www.realclearpolitics.com) that puts in personal terms how I felt yesterday.
When I saw Barack and Michelle briefly in the “surrogates” tent after Barack delivered his remarkable speech, he told me he had read my email (of several days earlier) offering to assist with legal/constitutional issues in whatever role he wanted me to play, and he indicated he’d want to take me up on that offer in some way.
I don’t know, of course, whether Barack was just being sweet or whether he had something serious in mind. Given all the things on his plate at the moment, I can’t expect him to focus personally on how I in particular could be most useful, so I’m reaching out to you (and am copying Tree) so that my interest and availability can be put on the relevant radar screens while the transition proceeds.
To cope with the challenge of restoring constitutional governance in light of all the damage the Bush/Chaney administration has done to the separation of powers and the rule of law, and to do so while his administration necessarily focuses its energies on such urgent matters as the economic crisis, Iraq, and Afghanistan/Pakistan, I think President Obama will need more than simply a White House Counsel’s Office, which of necessity focuses on the President and his conduct of the chief executive’s position, and more than simply an OLC in the Justice Department, which of necessity focuses on the Attorney General’s direction of DOJ. To cope with the cross-cutting matters this challenge entails, I think the administration could benefit from a tightly-knit White House advisory apparatus touching on both domestic and international issues and overlapping the jurisdictions of DOJ and DOD, among other executive departments and agencies.
The group charged with this legal mission would address such related matters as the Bush/Chaney administration’s abusive employment of “signing statements” predicated on bloated views of executive authority and improperly narrow views of congressional power; the difficult issues posed by the need to close the legal black hole at Guantanamo and figuring out what to do with the detainees there; deciding how to allocate responsibility between the civilian justice system and the military justice system in coping with terror-related offenses; considering various officials’ possible accountability for torture and other violations committed in the recent past; replacing current uses of “enhanced interrogation” techniques with approaches more respectful of human rights; coping with the tradeoffs between security and liberty involved in electronic surveillance and other preventive techniques; rooting out the improper use of partisan considerations in the appointments process throughout the government; and otherwise rebuilding the constitutional framework. It seems evident that many of these matters overlap the responsibilities of, for example, DOJ and DOD.
One of the ways I think I might be most useful would be as an Assistant to the President heading up such a White House group, whose work might well be concluded within a year or two but might need to extend throughout the first term. Of course I’d also be prepared to take on any other and longer mission that Barack might want to assign to me and would certainly be willing to take as long a leave from Harvard as such a mission would demand.
Among other things, I’d be honored to serve as Barack’s White House Counsel or even to take on a role requiring Senate confirmation, such as Solicitor General or Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel, but I’ve been assuming that Barack already has others in mind for those more conventional posts, and I don’t feel any need for the glitter that accompanies them or any eagerness to go through the confirmation process that they entail.
The main point I want to underscore is my eagerness to serve. Should it be helpful to talk in person, I’m still in Chicago following the events in Grant Park and will be here through Saturday evening. I have a couple of speaking engagements here relating to my latest book, one on Friday night and one on Saturday night.
I can be reached by email or on my cell, 617-512-xxxx. I’ll be returning to Boston on Sunday morning.
Good luck in all that the transition involves.
You can almost visualize his little tail wagging as he typed this.
Have your barf bags at the ready...
What a pukefest. Seriously.
If only he had offered to be his Monica intern. Oh well, missed opportunities.
I wonder what Tribe thinks of Obama now?
Obama took the "damage by Bush/Chaney to the separation of powers and the rule of law" and amplified it to whole new level.
I think he basically did. Let's just say he specifically didn't exclude it from his brief.
Kinda ironic in retrospect, no?
Nor did he explicitly include it. That was his mistake.
Pukefest is right!
It also cured my constipation......
Good point... he couldah binah contendah...
Who is the writer of this disgusting suck-up letter?
He’s occasionally on Hugh Hewitt’s talk radio show along with a real conservative legal scholar, can’t remember his name right now-Hugh puts them on together every week or so. This is so pathetically suck-up, it’s almost a parady. One would think someone of Tribe’s stature wouldn’t resort to this, but I guess there’s no shite too deep that a leftist won’t wade through. And what’s stunning to think is this stuff must have worked for him in the past. Well, he’s a professor at Harvard.
From Wikileaks:
Laurence Henry Tribe (born October 10, 1941) is a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School and the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University.
Tribe is a liberal scholar of constitutional law and cofounder of American Constitution Society.
You know, Robert, you bring to mind my thoughts every time I see Obama and Biden together.
I forgot to say his name, Laurence Tribe.
LOL
P.S. As an afterthought, I am also prepared to assume the
duties of the Queen of England when the British see the
light and coronate Barack as King to replace the one they
now have.
I am at the moment about to soil my Depends with great
anticipation of Barack’s ascension to the world’s throne
as its great messiah.
Please excuse the eager anticipation indicated in this
articulate and timely letter.
TWINKIE took the liberty of adding the PS to this suck-up
long-winded tome that could have consisted of about ten
words to say the same exact things.
Snicker ..... :-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.