alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

July 23, 2008

Cass Sunstein is Creeping Me Out

by AltHippo @ 12:21 pm. Filed under Life in D.C., 2008 Elections, impeachment

Prof Turley is without doubt one of the most admired legal eagles in our fair city, the People’s Republic of DC. In this case, though, I’m hoping he has mischaracterized the relationship between Obama and Cass Sunstein, aka Mr. Samantha Powers. As far as I can tell, Sunstein is a creepy dude.

This quote from Sunstein has been going around lately. You may have seen it:

Prosecuting government officials risks a “cycle” of criminalizing public service, [Sunstein] argued, and Democrats should avoid replicating retributive efforts like the impeachment of President Clinton — or even the “slight appearance” of it.

It’s kind of ironic that Sunstein wrote a book called Republic.com 2.0. If he had read the slightly older Republic.com 1.0, he would have recognized that Justice is a fundamental attribute of the ideal city. Ideal, of course, in the Platonic sense. The idea that the Executive branch should not be accountable for crimes, high or low is so offensive to our notion of justice that I find it hard to believe that a Harvard Law professor would broach the subject. Well, Harvard, maybe. They can be kind of weird.

As one of Turley’s commenters asks:

Sunstein is a lawyer? Where’d he get his degree? Costco?

Look, Sunstein: there is public service, and there is crime. They are not the same thing. It’s apples and oranges. Public service simply cannot be “criminalized.” A person holding public office who uses that office to commit crimes is not in public service but in self service.

I’ll note that Sunstein doesn’t refer to himself as a “close advisor” to Obama, as Glenn Greenwald had put it: (Salon)

You’re sounding a bit like Barack Obama. He was your colleague for a while, right?

Yes, 10 years. And I’m an informal, occasional advisor to him.

I’ll tell you what I like about Obama, which is connected with the book. He really doesn’t like to surround himself only with like-minded others. He really is someone who has never lived and wouldn’t live in an echo chamber.

While I’d prefer “he thinks I’m an idiot” to “informal, occasional advisor” at least it’s something.

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2 Responses to “Cass Sunstein is Creeping Me Out”

  1. Rafflaw Says:
    July 23rd, 2008 at 3:06 pm

    Sunstein is very scary. He is passing himself off as an “advisor” to Obama. I can only hope that he is dropping names to get more attention because he was in favor of Bush’s theory that the commander in chief can do anything. I have sent an email to the Obama campaign asking them to confirm Sunstein’s status as an informal advisor. I asked them to change his status to “don’t call us, we’ll call you” advisor.

  2. AltHippo Says:
    July 23rd, 2008 at 4:43 pm

    “I have sent an email to the Obama campaign asking them to confirm Sunstein’s status as an informal advisor.”

    I wish I’d thought of that. Actually, my plan is to ask around to see if folks here in DC had any direct familiarity with him.

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