Obama Nominee for Justice Post Withdraws

From the New York Times:

President Obama’s choice to lead the powerful Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department withdrew from consideration for the post on Friday, ending a troubled but high-profile nomination that had dragged on for more than a year.

In a statement released by the White House in the afternoon, the nominee, Dawn Johnsen, said she had come to realize that the strong Republican opposition to her nomination had undermined her own goal for the office, which was to restore its reputation for providing legal advice “unvarnished by politics or partisan ambition.”