Yoo's Tenure

Jesse:
Here then here is an interesting discussion about an email from the Dean of Boalt Hall (Berkeley's law school) on the subject of stripping John "torture memos" Yoo of his tenure. I could have sworn I had specific comments about this before, but apparently not, other than these.

The original thought I wanted to add is brief. Should governments be receiving legal advice from more disparate sources? America, in it's infinite wisdom, passes the presidency from Democrat to Republican and back again relatively regularly (yes, if draw the window exactly where you want, it looks like the GOP dominates, but I think that's a little ridiculous). Is it a good idea to have partisan advice? No, probably not. But if you're going to do (since high level appointees are partisan), does it make sense to have both sides of the argument? Absolutely.

This doesn't mean (to me) that President Obama should hire someone who's as out there (and criminally and ethically dubious) as Professor Yoo. But, maybe they should be realistic. The United States is a divided country. I think they would benefit from having their own Ainsley Hayes. And, of course, I think we can all wish that the Bush administration had hired someone who wasn't completely insane.