After 8 years of the Bush Administration, it’s amazing how low our collective standards have fallen. For instance, the idea that Barack Obama has appointed people to the Department of Justice who will uphold the rule of law — as opposed to wantonly ignoring it for political purposes — struck me almost too good to be true.

But by any standards the team he’s put together looks top notch. Elena Kagan is clearly the big news, but there’s a lot of depth in the slate of nominees. TAPPED points out:

One particular point of interest: Johns[e]n, the new head of the Office of Legal Counsel, has recently written articles entitled Faithfully Executing the Laws: Internal Legal Constraints on Executive Power and What’s a President to Do? Interpreting the Constitution in the Wake of the Bush Administration’s Abuses. Given that OLC was a hotbed of torture-justifying and illegal-surveillance-allowing during the last administration, it’s nice to see that the new boss has a different set of ideas.

Be still my beating heart!