Bush Selects 2 for Bench, Adding Fuel to Senate Fire

[realFedUp]

(whatever else is going on with the Bushies...putting conservative
judges in place is their goal)

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/26/politics/26JUDG.html

July 26, 2003
Bush Selects 2 for Bench, Adding Fuel to Senate Fire
By NEIL A. LEWIS

WASHINGTON, July 25 — President Bush escalated his fight with Senate Democrats over judicial nominations today by naming two new candidates for judgeships for the federal appeals court in Washington, widely regarded as second in importance only to the Supreme Court.

Mr. Bush nominated Brett M. Kavanaugh, an associate White House counsel, and Janice R. Brown, a California Supreme Court justice, to the 11th and 12th seats on the appeals court.

-snip-

Mr. Kavanaugh, at 38, would be one of the youngest members of the federal appeals bench. He is assistant to the president and staff secretary, and has been responsible for marshaling the fleet of largely conservative judicial nominees the president has sent to the Senate, resulting in angry battles with Democrats. But he is probably better known as a senior assistant to Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel who investigated President and Mrs. Clinton for a variety of issues. Mr. Kavanaugh was one of the principal authors of the "Starr report" that argued that President Clinton deserved to be impeached because of how he dealt with his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky, a one-time White House intern.

continued

[realFedUp]

1. Justice Brown

-snip-
Justice Brown, who is African-American, wrote the majority opinion in 2000 interpreting California's referendum against affirmative action in a way that greatly pleased conservatives.

A seat on the District of Columbia Circuit would put her in the on-deck circle for a nomination to the Supreme Court. Three of the current justices were elevated from that court.

Justice Brown, 54, has been touted intensively in conservative legal circles as someone whose judicial philosophy would match that of Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, both of whom Mr. Bush said would be his models for any Supreme Court appointments

[madrchsod]

2. models?

a scj that has no clue on how to right an opinion and and the other is a religious delusional paranoid. yup that`s about bush`s level of intelligence

[realFedUp]

3. Rubber stamps

is all these guys want.

[mbperrin]

4. Keep in mind that

a "model" is a "small, simple imitation of the real article."

Look it up!

[pfitz59]

5. How many of Starr's elves......

are already sitting on the Federal Court? They should all be rotting in prison!

[Cocoa]

6. so who's politicizing the judiciary?

those are purely political appointments.

Things are getting really ugly. The Starr Report is going to come back now.

[CityDem]

7. Dems will have a hard time blocking Janice Brown

As the article stated, she is quite conservative, yet has not always ruled as a strict conservative. She is african american with humble roots which will make it difficult to attack her on a personal level (e.g. right wing religous fanatic). She has been a judge for several years - can't use the Estrada tactic of too young and stealth candidate. Dems are going to have to swallow hard and approve Brown. This will not be the last time you hear of Judge Brown. If Bush is elected in 2004, she may be the first african american woman nominated to the SCOTUS - probably taking O'Connors seat.

Kavanaugh will go down because the repubs have argued in Clinton times that the DC Circuit does not need 12 judges. Dems will use the same argument and fillibuster.

[goobergunch]

9. I hope you're wrong about Brown (n/t)

[realFedUp]

10. Below the skin color is a rightwing conservative

who will side with Scalia and Thomas and overturn everything
we've all worked for. I don't care what color her skin is...
that's real color blindness. That goes for any conservative
ethnicity in my book. I abhor someone hiding behind their
skin color or ethnicity when people object to their ideology.

[CityDem]

11. Reality bites

You may feel that way, but the dems in the senate are going to be hard pressed to take out Janice Brown. They can take down Estrada because they have an excuse about the documents while he was in the solicitor generals office. It was easy to take down Owens (white southerner) and will be easy to take down Pryor (white religous southerner) and Kuhn (white radical woman). Taking down a african american woman who happens to be conservative is going to be a much more difficult task.

[kentuck]

8. That's why he's a "uniter" not a divider....

In fact, he's a liar.

[Democat]

12. Democrats need to yell loudly about the Ken Starr connection

Democrats should launch a full ad campaign saying that Bush is promoting Ken Starr's people into the court system.

The American people were agains the impeachment and there is no way that Bush can claim to be a moderate when he is promoting Ken Starr.

This should be made into a huge public relations blunder for Bush.