Finally

One of the main reasons I voted Obama earlier this month - and was so happy to see him win - was because I believed that it would mean a return to Constitutional government, both in foreign policy (see the Bush Doctrine) and in the separation of powers (see Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales). Today, sources say Obama has picked Eric Holder to be his Attorney General, and I couldn't be happier.

Eric H. Holder Jr., Deputy Attorney General during the Clinton administration, asserted in a speech to the American Constitution Society (ACS) that the United States must reverse “the disastrous course” set by the Bush administration in the struggle against terrorism by closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, declaring without qualification that the U.S. does not torture people, ending the practice of transferring individuals involuntarily to countries that engage in torture and ceasing warrantless domestic surveillance.

“Our needlessly abusive and unlawful practices in the ‘War on Terror' have diminished our standing in the world community and made us less, rather than more, safe,” Holder told a packed room at the ACS 2008 Convention on Friday evening. “For the sake of our safety and security, and because it is the right thing to do, the next president must move immediately to reclaim America's standing in the world as a nation that cherishes and protects individual freedom and basic human rights.”

My hope for a government that really does check itself against the fundamentals of the Constitution grows by the day.