More Senate antics

This story, about blocking the appointment of a good judge.

A big fight is brewing in the United States Senate over President Bush’s nomination of former Mississippi judge Leslie H. Southwick to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (which covers Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi). It is a fight that, but for Senate Democrats’ craven kowtowing to the lies of the Left, would never have happened.

Let’s begin with the basic facts. Judge Southwick is amply qualified to serve on the Fifth Circuit. Even the American Bar Association’s judicial-evaluations committee unanimously gave him its highest “well qualified” rating. He served for 11 years as a state appellate judge. He has 20 years of experience in private practice and a decade as an adjunct law professor. And he also served as a senior Justice Department official in the Bush 41 administration.

Every judicial nominee ought to be treated with decency and fairness. But Southwick particularly deserves a healthy dose of respect, as he is a genuine American hero. He joined the Army Reserve in 1992, when he was 42. In 2003, when he was 53, he volunteered to transfer into a line combat unit of the Mississippi National Guard, a unit that, in the words of its commander, was “widely known [as] nearly certain to mobilize for overseas duties in the near future.” Indeed, Southwick served on active duty in Iraq from August 2004 to January 2006, returning home just in time for his 56th birthday.

The Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee were already familiar with Southwick and his record, as they late last year unanimously approved President Bush’s nomination of Southwick to a federal district-court seat.

But now, they’ve turned against him. Read Whelan’s article. Bottom line…

There is, in sum, zero substance to the case against Southwick. But the Left’s attack on him caused Democrats to renege on their promise to move his nomination. And in a profile in cowardice, the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, who know that their allies are besmirching an outstanding man, are now threatening to vote down his nomination.

Why, given its laughably feeble case, is the Left attacking Southwick? Simply put, because it believes it can defeat him. And because it is confident that stigmatizing Southwick as a backwards bigot will give Senate Democrats all the political cover they need. In other words, what really underlies the Left’s attack is its own appeal to bigotry — to the widespread belief that every white male from the South is presumptively a racist. Is that a charge that Democratic senators from southern states — like Jim Webb from Virginia, Mary Landrieu from Louisiana, and Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln from Arkansas — will let prevail?

Probably, given the bent of politics in Congress these days. But I’d like to think some of these people will step up and put leadership ahead of partisanship. One can hope. We want noble leaders. In the next election, remember the importance of the role of appointing judges