Ack! If Congress files charges, Bush aides likely will face friendly court

[lonestarnot]

by Nick Juliano
Published: Wednesday January 2, 2008

Bush appointees gives GOP 60/40 advantage on federal appeals courts
When President Bush leaves the White House 383 days from now, historians will begin to officially sum up his eight years in office. Aside from his legacy as the commander in chief who plunged the US into an intractable Iraq war, Bush's other lasting impression will survive far beyond the end of his term -- the decidedly conservative slant he has placed on federal courts.

Bush has appointed nearly 300 federal judges, giving Republican appointees a majority nationally, including a 60 percent-to-40 percent advantage on influential appeals courts, reports David G. Savage in the Los Angeles Times.

With criminal charges ready to be filed against current and former White House aides who have defied Congressional investigators, along with continuing questions over whether Bush administration lawyers or the CIA obstructed justice in destroying videotaped interrogations possibly depicting torture, the friendly judiciary could come in handy for Bush and his political allies sooner rather than later.

Investigative reporter Robert Parry, musing about Bush's aborted attempt to promote his lawyer, Harriet Miers, to the Supreme Court, outlined some historical examples where friendly judges perhaps have abetted impropriety within the executive.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Bushs_legacy_conservativefriendly_court_0102.html