Frustrated With Ridiculous Slowing, White House To Renominate Johnsen And Others

Sam Stein reports today that the White House is very frustrated with how Dawn Johnsen and other executive/judical nominees have not been confirmed yet despite nominating them a LONG LONG time ago. This has lead to an eminent renomination of those hopeful appointees

"We have put a number of people into government in the first year," Gibbs said, in a response to a question by the Huffington Post. "But at the same time we have seen a pacing in dealing with nominations, both for the executive branch and judicial nominations that, I think, by almost any estimation would be deemed slow."

As Gibbs briefed reporters, sources said that the White House will push to re-nominate seven of those judicial and political appointees who have been held up in the Senate, including Dawn Johnsen, the controversial nominee to head the Office of Legal Counsel.

Two sources with knowledge of the situation told HuffPost that they expected the re-nominations to be announced soon. But administration officials emphasized that no decisions have been made as of yet. Senate Democratic aides, meanwhile, said they were in the dark about where those nominations stood. The president can not officially re-submit a nominee until the Senate reconvenes on January 20, unless he is pursuing a recess appointment.

Now again, a lot of things will still need to happen, especially with the Senate clearly not prepared for this as evidence of the "aides being in the dark" over the announcement from Gibbs in the press conference today.

Johnsen's inactivity has been shameful to say the least. When January 19 hits, it will be 10 months since Johnsen's nomination. And it highlights just how broken our government really is.

Plus, where has the urgency for the White House been on this the entire time? That honest question has to be asked.