Both Jeffrey Toobin at The New Yorker and Publius at Obsidian Wings are worrying that Harold Hongju Koh’s nomination is in trouble.  I don’t mean to dismiss their concerns, but the problem with such speculation is that it leads to headlines like “Is Koh in Trouble?” — which, as anyone who has taken messaging 101 can tell you, leads people to conclude that Koh’s nomination is in trouble.

I see no evidence of that.

Let’s review the facts here.  Conservative critics have accused Koh of a variety of alleged sins, at least one of which has proven to be transparently false.  Once the initial hysteria over that now-disproven charge passed, the attacks have from three fronts:  Ed Whelan, John Bolton, and the Coalition to Preserve American Sovereignty — a Frank Gaffney-organized group that, until recently, was spending all of its time arguing that the UN Convention on Law of the Sea was a significant national security threat. We’re talking about a very small and self-selecting group of ultra-neoconservative lawyers closely associated with or supportive of the Bush Administration’s torture and detention policies.

To be crystal clear here, I’m not suggesting that the left should ignore these attacks, nor am I suggesting that other conservatives won’t jump on the neocon train.  Engaging the opposition in the arena of ideas is important, especially when the other side is selective in its portrayal of the facts.  And I agree with Publius’s assertion that Obama needs to stand up to these bullies.

But let’s not make the mistake of suggesting that Koh is in trouble — not only because it isn’t true, but also because that’s exactly what the other side wants us to start saying.

Related posts

• More Detail on the Koh Cloture Vote
• Harold Koh: The Company You Keep
• A Conservative Argument for Confirming Harold Koh
• The Smear Campaign against Harold Koh
• Koh through the SFRC