Comments on: Why the Oil Spill Tells Us Nothing About the Effectiveness of Obama’s Management Style

By: Matthew Dickinson

Matthew Dickinson — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:36:35 +0000

Jeff – I think Holder’s action is consistent with the Obama administration’s focus on reshaping the narrative of the oil spill to emphasize a) that BP is the culprit here and b) that the Obama administration is actively involved in finding a solution and holding BP accountable. I’m not willing, at this point, to generalize from this one incident regarding the activism of Holder in comparison to previous Attorney Generals. If there is an overriding lesson from recent history regarding the AG’s role, however, it is the necessity of appearing to remain above politics at all costs. Whether Holder is succeeding in doing this is an open question.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:03:26 +0000

Prof. Dickinson,

Can you speak to the character of Obama’s DOJ at all? What’s notable about the proposed action on BP is that it’s criminal (there’s an obvious civil claim). I don’t know the details of the criminal charge on BP, but it strikes me as at the very least incredibly convenient to be pursuing this and the Goldman Sachs case, which everyone knows is an incredibly speculative case that hinges on materiality of investing information. Is Atty. Gen. Holder particularly activist in relation to past AGs? Is the DOJ, like most things today, more polarized than it has been in its history (the only other DOJ with which I’m familiar is Bush’s)? I suppose that more polarized politicians could beget more polarized cabinet officials.