BREAKING NEWS: sometime shortly after writing our choices for Federal Judge, the "short list" was announced: Judges Bagley and Scola and Fed PD Kathy Williams are the three finalists. Congratulations to all three! Glad to know the JNC reads our blog.
MarKus broke the shortlist story.
Before we begin, we highly recommend you go to the federal blog and read guest blogger Dore Louis's reporting on the interviews in Federal Court for the open slot. State court Judges Barzee, Bob Scola, and Bagely got rave reviews, as did Federal PD Kathy Williams.
Anyone of those four would be a great great choice.
Longtime and careful readers of the blog know our admiration for the 40th President of the United States: one Ronald Wilson Reagan. Said readers also know the despair which we have felt watching the party of Lincoln and Roosevelt and Reagan (not to mention G H W Bush) descend into the mindless madness of right wing anti-intellectual religious leaders.
And now 2/3's of Republicans want to add the name "Palin" to Lincoln, Roosevelt, et.al. It's like adding the names Moe, Larry and Curly to the story of the Exodus in the bible. Actually, it's a lot worse. Moe could have conked the Pharaoh on the head while Curly danced around on one foot hooting and hollering. We can't think of anything constructive Palin could have done with Lincoln or Roosevelt.
The New Yorker Magazine, noting Palin resigned on July 3, and the Declaration Of Independence was signed the next day in 1776, had this observation on Palin's resignation:
Here's Jefferson on political change:
Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Here is Palin on the same topic:
Government's supposed to serve from the bottom up and not move towards this top-down, big government takeover, but rather will be protectors of individual rights, who also have enough common sense to acknowledge when conditions have drastically changed, and they're willing to call an audible and pass the ball when it's time so the team can win.
You see, the problem is that two thirds of Republicans don't remember that in the almost forgotten Federalist paper #99, Jefferson was a staunch opponent of calling an audible and passing. He believed in a strong ground game. Indeed it was Jefferson who first noted that "when you pass the ball, three things can happen, two of them bad."
See you in court, where it's still hot, and unlike most judges, we're still wearing a tie.
11 comments:
Palin is done as a politician. She is going to have a reputation as a quitter--to paraphrase Harry Truman, when she couldn't stand the heat, she got out of the kitchen. Should she choose to run in 2012, which I think she will do if she can make some cash in the private sector, I would bet anyone $100,000, 5 to 1 odds, that someone uses that line against her within 30 days of her announcing her candidacy.
Notwithstanding all of her other weaknesses, Sarah Palin has extremely thin skin for a politician. She--like every other candidate for President and Vice-President--has been the subject of sometimes vicious and sometimes unfair personal attacks. Yet instead of recognizing that she is human and not infallable, she tends to blame all of her woes on others and spew so much vitriol on her opponents that she makes Dick Cheney look like a candidate for sainthood. Not qualities one wants from a Commander-in-Chief.
Given the shrinking GOP bench (Jindal, Sanford and Ensign are pretty much out of the running), she has to be considered at least a semi-legitimate candidate, although there are two years for someone to pop out of the woodwork. But unless the economy is still in severe recession three years from now, or Obama becomes embroiled in a Watergate-like scandal, there is no way Palin beats him.
THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
Looks like Bill Barzee didn't raise nearly enough $$$$$ for Obama.
The three finalists for the position of US District Court Judge are:
Judge Jerald Bagley
Judge Robert Scola
Fed. PD Kathleen Williams
The next stop is with US Senator Bill Nelson and then it's on to the desk of President Obama for him to nominate one name.
Of course, then it's on to the US Senate's Judiciary Committee. Let's hope that whatever name comes out does not end up getting stuck in the middle of some other political football that has absolutely nothing to do with the job of confirming one of these three very qualified candidates for judge.
Good luck to them all.
CAPTAIN OUT .....
Captain you are an imbecile,how dare you imply that the JNC would be influenced by campaign donation or equate Mary Barzees quest as being solely dollar fueled.
She is a superlative candidate and everyone knows it.Your snide remark is hurtful after what must be a deep disappointment for her.
The candidates selected are ,of course, incredibly qualified and will each make great Federal judges
I'm sure the Captain intended it is introduction to be a joke. Regardless, it was wrong and an embarrassment to him on many levels.
The comment kicked a person when she was down... not funny.
The comment mocked Judge Barzee-Flores for the fund-raising efforts of another person...her brother.
It impugned the integrity of the nominating committee.
It impugned the integrity of the executive branch.
Hmmmmm...
Judge Bagley runs for chief judge but can't make the cut among his peers, while a highly respected nominating committee selects him as a finalist to be a federal judge.
The longest serving chief judge in the 11th judicial circuit deems Judge Lederman a worthy administrative judge during his entire tenure, while his successor replaces her after two weeks on the job.
Rumpole,
When are you going to write about the SCOTUS' ruling in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts? They held that under the confrontation clause, when the state offers lab tests into evidence, a lab tech has to testify about the results! This is huge!
to 4:48 am;
You are a doofus. If you read the blog, you would know that other bloggers actually mentioned the Barzee suggestion. Mine was tongue in cheek to them.
I would have loved to see Judge Barzee in the final three.
Cap Out ...
No, Captain, it is your mistake.
Referencing another thread, without stating that you are doing so, renders your reference obscure and irrelevant.
I am sure there is a thread discussing Bill Barzee's fund- raising. Like 4:58, I missed it and took your comment at face value.
The fact is, you know better. Your 9:45 comment refers to a previous comment and SPECIFICALLY IDENTIFIES IT. Thus, your first post contains nothing which allows the inference you are responding to an older thread, while your second post, which clearly IS a response, specifically identifies the post you are responding to.
Oh Captain my Captain! Your dueling personae are giving me fits.
Rumpole:
Why no comments from your hero Ronald Reagan on the issue of political change? Is it because Sarah Palin's comments don't look half as bad when contrasted with RR's canned soundbites? Like it or not, Palin is as close to Reagan (small town values, fiscal conservative, etc.) that the Republican Party. This is not to say that Palin is great (even though I think she is underestimated) but that Reagan was and is vastly overrated as a President.
thank god us defense attorneys wont be losing judge barzee to the fed bench.
Ronald Reagan wrote this himself on the Challenger tragedy:
The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."
Ronald Reagan spent more than a decade as a GE spokesman traveling the country in the 1950's writing hundreds of his own speeches. Those are complied now in a book. Any one of those speeches contains more thought than Palin has mustered in her entire life.
You want to worship at her alter of incompetence and anti-intellectual hypocrisy? Go right ahead. We can do better. Much better,
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