How about that for a Hollywood blockbuster? It’s starting to look that way with Harold Koh, nominated by President Obama to be the State Department’s legal advisor, and talks of the White House perusing top Muslim Americans for a high ranking government position.
But this is no comedy. Before his nomination Harold Koh was dean at Yale Law School, but once he enters the State Department as one of the government’s top lawyers, he’ll have powers to be feared because he’ll be the one forging international treaties and agreements with foreign nations.
His beliefs are worrisome and even anti-American:
Koh has called America’s focus on the War on Terror “obsessive.” In 2004, he listed countries that flagrantly disregard international law — “most prominently, North Korea, Iraq, and our own country, the United States of America,” which he branded “the axis of disobedience.”He has also accused President George Bush of abusing international law to justify the invasion of Iraq, comparing his “advocacy of unfettered presidential power” to President Richard Nixon’s. And that was the first Bush — Koh was attacking the 1991 operation to liberate Kuwait, four days after fighting began in Operation Desert Storm.
Koh has also praised the Nicaraguan Sandinistas’ use in the 1980s of the International Court of Justice to get Congress to stop funding the Contras. Imagine such international lawyering by rogue nations like Iran, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela today, and you can see the danger in Koh’s theories.
Koh, a self-described “activist,” would plainly promote his views aggressively once at State. He’s not likely to feel limited by the letter of the law — in 1994, he told The New Republic: “I’d rather have [former Supreme Court Justice Harry] Blackmun, who uses the wrong reasoning in Roe [v. Wade] to get the right results, and let other people figure out the right reasoning.”
Worse, the State job might be a launching pad for a Supreme Court nomination. (He’s on many liberals’ short lists for the high court.) Since this job requires Senate confirmation, it’s certainly a useful trial run.
Be scared. Be very scared. The nomination of Harold Koh needs to be a flashing, bright blip on the political radar!
