William J. Haynes has been nominated as Pentagon general counsel. From The Progress Report: President Bush has nominated Pentagon general counsel William J. Haynes IV for a second time. Haynes led the group of attorneys responsible for the memos contending "the president wasn't bound by laws prohibiting torture and that government agents who might torture prisoners at his direction couldn't be prosecuted by the Justice Department." Haynes's nomination was derailed when "he was asked by the Judiciary Committee to provide material about his role in the [torture] issue and failed to do so." Haynes also developed and defended the administration's policy of incarcerating "U.S. citizens without counsel or judicial review" which was rejected as illegal by the Supreme Court. Another Haynes product: the rules for military tribunals planned for Guantanamo Bay that was described as "unjust, unwise, un-American" by the Economist magazine. In other appointment news, Sen. Joe Lieberman has said that he will not seek a Cabinet position, shooting down rumors that he may become the new National Intelligence Director.