Schumer: Sane judges need not apply

Bush renominates judges blocked before Provocative move a signal to Congress as Dems take over

President Bush renominated six previously blocked candidates for federal appeals courts Wednesday, triggering the first real battle with ascendant Democrats since the midterm elections and signaling what could be the start of a fierce two-year struggle over the shape of the federal judiciary.

The move heartened conservatives who worried that Bush would scale back his ambition to move courts to the right and outraged liberals who called it a violation of the spirit of bipartisanship promised since Democrats captured Congress. Both sides saw it as a possible harbinger for the remainder of the Bush presidency, particularly if a Supreme Court vacancy opens.

The decision to send back the six nominees, along with four new candidates for the bench, was a provocative maneuver intended to send a signal that Bush does not plan to cower in the face of an opposition Congress because the Senate almost certainly will not act on them in the lame-duck session that adjourns next month. If Bush wants to keep pushing for these nominations, he will have to submit them again in January, when the Senate reconvenes with Democrats in control.

"We are hopeful that the days of judicial obstruction are behind us," said White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore. Noting that a Republican Senate confirmed 15 of former President Bill Clinton's nominees to the federal appeals bench in his last two years, she added: "We are hopeful that President Bush's nominees will receive a fair up or down vote."

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said none of the six will be confirmed. "It's a real slap in the face," he said by telephone. "It basically makes you think the talk of bipartisanship is just talk." (emphasis ours)

...

-more-

So, judges who defer to the Constitution and refuse to legislate from the bench are DOA.

Great.

In the run-up to the elections, the GOP made the perfectly reasonable claim that defeating the admittedly flawed Republican majority would empower those who would treat terrorists as they would jaywalkers, rescind the economic policies that helped fuel the current expansion and embrace the same weak-kneed multiculturalism that has been so prominent in emasculating Old Europe.

Unbelievably -- mystifyingly -- the subject of judicial appointments was virtually ignored by the GOP's message makers.

So, we now have the great legal minds Schumer, Leahy and Kennedy in position to thwart their juridical superiors.

Our hope is that, under a Democratic president, the GOP will be similarly obdurate when the next Ruth Bader Ginsburg is appointed.

Yeah ... right.