GWC – Dems have no right to gripe on judges
Democrats don’t have much to complain about when it comes to Senate confirmation of President Obama’s judicial appointments, but some of them are doing it anyway.
The complaints are primarily over two federal judges who have been waiting five months for their nominations for appeals court promotions to be brought to the Senate floor.
Whatever roadblocks Republicans throw at Obama’s judicial nominees so far pale in comparison to those the Democrats used against George W. Bush when he was in office.
The most flagrant and unfair, at least from a Mississippi perspective, was caving in to special interest groups and unfairly rejecting U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering of Laurel as an appellate court judge on the false allegations that he was a racist.
Pickering, for years, worked toward racial harmony in the state, took a stand against the Ku Klux Klan when it was dangerous to do so in Mississippi and was anything but a racist.
Several others of Bush’s nominees waited for years for confirmation, but if there has ever been anyone treated unfairly in the confirmation process it was Pickering. Leaders in the Democratic party deserve blame for it.
But it’s too early for Democrats to start whining about a couple of delays in the confirmation process, considered in the light of recent history.
Greenwood Commonwealth
11/7/9
Magnolia Tribune
