Sid Salter at Mississippi's Clarion Ledger blogs, "Don't take my word for the partisan character assassination aimed at Mississippi Judge Leslie Southwick. Read what a national group has to say on the subject" and posts a press release from the Campaign for Justice with the headline: "Southern White Male Nominees Face Bias in Senate - Dems’ campaign against Judge Southwick repeats same old charges".
Meanwhile, the Legal Times Blog writes: Conservatives Counterattack For Southwick
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Summer Reading
The Committee for Justice blogs that some liberals may be "engrossed in Al Gore's new book" but "those of you who are more interested in constitutional law and the judicial nominations" should check out three books: A Price Too High by Charles Pickering; Confirmation Wars by Benjamin Wittes; and The Manhandling of the Constitution by Jim Dueholm.
FotF on Southwick
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family, writes about the Southwick situation. Here is an excerpt:
These charges are even more profoundly false and transparent than usual, because they are based on a couple opinions that Southwick didn't even write. And both decisions were correct as a matter of law and appellate practice, but that didn’t' matter to the attack dogs who are seeking to derail the third straight Mississippi nominee for this 5th Circuit seat.
That's right – both Charles Pickering and Michael Wallace were previously nominated by this president for this same seat, then tarred and feathered by the Left with similarly ridiculous treatment as Southwick is receiving now. Apparently liberals look upon white male nominees from Mississippi as whack-a-moles – when one pops up, bam!
Read the full story here.
These charges are even more profoundly false and transparent than usual, because they are based on a couple opinions that Southwick didn't even write. And both decisions were correct as a matter of law and appellate practice, but that didn’t' matter to the attack dogs who are seeking to derail the third straight Mississippi nominee for this 5th Circuit seat.
That's right – both Charles Pickering and Michael Wallace were previously nominated by this president for this same seat, then tarred and feathered by the Left with similarly ridiculous treatment as Southwick is receiving now. Apparently liberals look upon white male nominees from Mississippi as whack-a-moles – when one pops up, bam!
Read the full story here.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Southwick delayed
The Clarion Ledger reports Southwick was delayed again, in hopes that the Demcrats will agree to vote him out of committee with at least a neutral recommendation or even a negative recommendation: either of which still gives the full Senate the opportunity to vote.
The CQ Today report says in part:
Last week, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., suggested that Bush withdraw Southwick’s nomination and instead nominate an African-American candidate and name Southwick to a district court seat....The senator said White House counsel Fred F. Fielding told him June 13 that Bush will not follow Leahy’s advice.
According to both Leahy and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the panel, a majority of the committee is against Southwick’s nomination for the 5th Circuit....Specter also has suggested that the panel send the nomination to the floor, even with an unfavorable recommendation, rather than reject it outright. Leahy said that won’t happen.
Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairwoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., and another CBC member, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, appeared in the committee room to buttonhole Democrats before the meeting Thursday. They sat in the audience until Leahy postponed the planned vote.
....Bush has been trying to fill the same 5th Circuit seat since 2001, when he nominated Charles W. Pickering Sr. The next year, a Democratic-controlled Judiciary Committee rejected Pickering’s nomination.
Democrats filibustered Pickering in the 108th Congress. In early 2004, Bush gave Pickering a recess appointment, which lasted until the end of that Congress.
In the 109th Congress, Bush tapped Michael Wallace for the seat. The American Bar Association rated Wallace “not qualified” for the position, and the Senate did not vote on his nomination.
After Bush nominated Southwick to a Mississippi district court seat, he became part of a package of district court picks readied for floor action near the end of the 109th Congress. But the Senate did not vote on the package after Sam Brownback, R-Kan., blocked another nominee in the group, Janet T. Neff, whom Bush had nominated to a Michigan district court. Bush renominated Neff this year, and the Judiciary Committee approved her nomination last month.
Thad Cochran, R-Miss., strongly supports Southwick. “He’s one of the finest lawyers in the state of Mississippi, and it’s pure partisan politics at its worst,” Cochran said.
The CQ Today report says in part:
Last week, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., suggested that Bush withdraw Southwick’s nomination and instead nominate an African-American candidate and name Southwick to a district court seat....The senator said White House counsel Fred F. Fielding told him June 13 that Bush will not follow Leahy’s advice.
According to both Leahy and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the panel, a majority of the committee is against Southwick’s nomination for the 5th Circuit....Specter also has suggested that the panel send the nomination to the floor, even with an unfavorable recommendation, rather than reject it outright. Leahy said that won’t happen.
Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairwoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., and another CBC member, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, appeared in the committee room to buttonhole Democrats before the meeting Thursday. They sat in the audience until Leahy postponed the planned vote.
....Bush has been trying to fill the same 5th Circuit seat since 2001, when he nominated Charles W. Pickering Sr. The next year, a Democratic-controlled Judiciary Committee rejected Pickering’s nomination.
Democrats filibustered Pickering in the 108th Congress. In early 2004, Bush gave Pickering a recess appointment, which lasted until the end of that Congress.
In the 109th Congress, Bush tapped Michael Wallace for the seat. The American Bar Association rated Wallace “not qualified” for the position, and the Senate did not vote on his nomination.
After Bush nominated Southwick to a Mississippi district court seat, he became part of a package of district court picks readied for floor action near the end of the 109th Congress. But the Senate did not vote on the package after Sam Brownback, R-Kan., blocked another nominee in the group, Janet T. Neff, whom Bush had nominated to a Michigan district court. Bush renominated Neff this year, and the Judiciary Committee approved her nomination last month.
Thad Cochran, R-Miss., strongly supports Southwick. “He’s one of the finest lawyers in the state of Mississippi, and it’s pure partisan politics at its worst,” Cochran said.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Southwick vote today
After a couple of delays, Southwick's nomination to the Fifth Circuit comes up for a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee today. Mississippi's largest newspaper, the Clarion Ledger, is for him in this editorial.
UPDATE: Southwick vote postponed again. LegalTimesBlog says: Conceding that he didn’t have the votes to pass Southwick out of the committee, Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) asked for Southwick to be held over again until next week. Of the move to wait another week Specter said, “I would like another week, perhaps to waste my time” to find enough votes to pass Southwick to the full Senate floor.
UPDATE: Southwick vote postponed again. LegalTimesBlog says: Conceding that he didn’t have the votes to pass Southwick out of the committee, Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) asked for Southwick to be held over again until next week. Of the move to wait another week Specter said, “I would like another week, perhaps to waste my time” to find enough votes to pass Southwick to the full Senate floor.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Pickering and Southwick
Great post and analysis at ConfirmThem.com on the truth against PFAW and the other liberals' attacks on judges like Pickering and Southwick.
Monday, June 11, 2007
City Journal
Harry Stein writes a great piece in City Journal about "A Price Too High" and Judge Pickering's confirmation fight: "Charles Pickering Gets the Last Word: A maligned civil rights hero, the changing South, and the future of the courts"
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