At the United States Senator from Wisconsin Russ Feingold's listening session Monday in Ozaukee County, a question from the floor.
Robert: On your judicial committee that you're on, how come you supported Louis Butler as a representative on the court for southwestern Wisconsin [Western District map]? We the State of Wisconsin voted him off the bench twice [sic] and now you're putting him to a position we can't get him off of [you can, but it's hard].
[Applause]
Feingold: Judge Butler is a distinguished judge. He did a wonderful job in Milwaukee ...
[Hoots, catcalls, grunts, etc.]
Feingold: I understand. Now you do know, of course, that the people of this country, when we made this Constitution, which many people [here] have referred to, specifically chose not to have federal judges elected. Now why is that? They decided they wanted a different kind of judiciary that wasn't based on elections. When Louis Butler lost his seat on the Supreme Court — 51-49 — he was not repudiated. He lost to another guy. That doesn't mean he should never be a judge. That doesn't mean he should go to jail or something. The guy barely lost.
[Audience members: But he lost!]
Feingold: But that doesn't mean ... and, by the way, he won in the Western District of Wisconsin. In the area that he would be the judge for, he won.
[Silence]
Feingold: So I don't think that should be the rule. We had a commission rank him first among all the people that applied, so I don't think it's wrong at all.
[Silence]
Then somebody spotted Glenn Grothman skulking around.
Good for Feingold.
ReplyDeleteDarkest of night
ReplyDeleteWith the moon shining bright
There's a set goin' strong
Lotta things goin' on
The man of the hour
Has an air of great power
The dudes have envied him for so long
Oooh, Stupefy
Good for Feingold.
ReplyDeleteYes, except he has yet to indicate whether he will urge the president to resubmit the nomination, as Senator Kohl has done.
Although ultimately, I suppose, that might be Butler's call.
Good point. I've wondered why Sen. Feingold hasn't come out in support of Butler's nomination being resubmitted. Hopefully he does.
ReplyDeleteI think it's worth whatever fight it might be. I'll go to Washington and testify, if they want me to. Of course the other parties have a broader set of political concerns to assess than I do, but the principles at issue are always worth defending.
ReplyDeleteRuss seems to have some very peculiar first principles when it comes to nominations. Perhaps he had some sort of early childhood committee hearing trauma.
ReplyDeleteI'm not fully educated on Feingold's entire history of consenting to or withholding consent from judicial nominees, but my first encounter with Feingold was at a listening session in Washington County, where he announced he'd be voting in favor of the confirmation of John Ashcroft as Attorney General.
ReplyDeleteDespite the series of wacky peccadilloes unearthed and presented by his Democratic colleagues on the judiciary committee,* Feingold emphasized the president's constitutional appointment power over any and all of those objections.
And there really aren't any serious objections to Butler's qualifications and suitability to a seat on the Western District. Only differences of opinion, which themselves are derived ultimately from disingenuous misrepresentations of Butler's reasoning in a deliberately selective, tiny sample of his written work.
* An early example of "the bloggers" influencing public policy.
Feingold emphasized the president's constitutional appointment power
ReplyDeleteYes, which makes me think that he may be hesitant to get out ahead of the administration's wishes (and given his funky relationship with same, may not know what those are). And I bet he figures the reasons why Obama would cut bait are irrelevant; it's simply the president's choice to make.
He's bizarrely consistent in that way, to our detriment.
You certainly may have something there.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid health care town halls have ruined civility in listening sessions for the next decade.
ReplyDeleteIt's like a whole roomful of Cindy Sheehans.
ReplyDelete