Wednesday, November 7, 2001
|
Wednesday, November 7, 2001 |
|
Democrats hold hostage Bush court nominees Now that the Democrats have taken over the Senate Judiciary Committee, they are insisting that they have always treated fairly the Republican nominees to the federal bench while their nominees were pigeonholed or unfairly attacked. Not so. An organization that follows such processes reports that during the first Bush Administration the Democrats set a modern record with 55 non-confirmations. By contrast, 41 Clinton appointees were turned down in the year 2000. Stated another way, 88 percent of Clinton nominees were confirmed the first year of his term, as opposed to 13 percent of Bush's choices. Senate Majority Leader Daschle characterized the 75 bench vacancies under Clinton as a "judicial emergency." He has failed thus far to sound the alarm regarding the 106 vacancies under G. W. Bush. Democrats also like to describe their nominees as "moderate," or "centrist," while Republican nominees are "ideologues" or "extremists." In the interest of determining what our liberal Senators consider moderate, or centrist, we might look at some of the judges nominated by Democrats in the recent past: Judge Norma Holloway Johnson was appointed by President Clinton to the federal bench in the District of Columbia. Wherein it is normal to assign cases to other judges by computer selection, she bypassed the normal process and assigned cases involving Clinton's rich friends caught up in the campaign finance scandals to other judges appointed by Clinton. According to Judicial Watch, these judges colluded in favor of the plaintiffs. Several cases were thrown out, but were reinstated upon appeal. The appeals resulted in a conviction, and the policy which allowed Judge Johnson to bypass the normal procedure has since been abolished. Wasn't Judge Johnson being an "ideologue?" U.S. District Judge Richard Paez is nominated for the Ninth Circuit. In 1995, Judge Paez attacked California Proposition 187, which restricted welfare for noncitizens as anti-Latino; and Proposition 209, which insured that all races be treated equally in hiring and appointments as "anti-civil rights" although both propositions were undergoing challenges in court and he was officially forbidden from commenting. He has also advocated race-based judicial appointments, and he once ruled that U.S. corporations could be held liable for the misdeeds of states with which they do business. Far out for a "centrist." Another Clinton appointee, Judge Frederica A. Massiah-Jackson of the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court has been known to swear at prosecutors using the vilest of language. She once betrayed the identity of undercover policemen in her court, telling criminals to "take a good look at these guys and be careful out there." When these events were brought up in Senate hearings, Messiah-Jackson first denied them, then obfuscated. She once gave the minimum sentence to a child rapist, then apologized to the rapist. The criminal was rearrested for sexual molestation of a 9-year-old upon release. She sentenced him to one year of probation probably earning her the liberal mantra of "moderate." In response, former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating is chairing a new bipartisan group committed to seeing that President Bush's judicial nominees are confirmed. His organization is called "People for Common Sense Courts," and is founded on the principle that the American people are basically conservative, and want strict and "common sense" judgments from the bench. Nan Aron of the liberal Alliance for Justice announced in December 2000 that her's and other liberal organizations would attempt to block Bush's nominees. "It will be scorched earth," she said, "We won't give one lousy inch" sounding for all the world like an "extremist." William Fielder Peachtree City
|
||