Alabama legislator outlaws Sheepshead*
Only Abraham Lincoln lost more elections than Wisconsin judge
A few gems from the brain of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, distinguished Senator from Alabama and rank(l)ing Republican member of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
The committee yesterday once again considered the nomination of Louis Butler to the federal court for the Western District of Wisconsin and once again voted to confirm 12-7, on political party lines.
In his remarks, Jeff Sessions opined that Louis Butler's pernicious influence turned the Wisconsin Supreme Court into "perhaps the most activist federal court in America."
Item: Obviously the Wisconsin Supreme Court is not a federal court.
Jeff Sessions called Judge Diane Sykes** a "former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice and current 11th Circuit justice."
Item: Judge Sykes is on the 7th Circuit, which sits in Chicago, with jurisdiction over Wisconsin. The 11th Circuit is in Atlanta, with jurisdiction over the Okefenokee Swamp (and Jeff Sessions).
Item: The only "justices" in the federal system are the nine in Washington, D.C. All of the others are "judges."
Finally, Jeff Sessions quoted from Art. I, Sec. 25 of the Wisconsin constitution thusly: "Quote, 'the right to keep and bear arms for security, defense, hunting, recreation or any other unlawful purpose,' closed quote."
Item: All recreational activity in Wisconsin is hereby deemed illegal.
And Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III said all of these things within the space of about three (III) minutes.
To sum up: Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee who is leading the charge of the dim brigade against Louis Butler, does not believe Butler, who has been a municipal court judge, a circuit court judge, and a State Supreme Court justice in Wisconsin for 16 years, is qualified to be a judge.***
Whereas Sessions is barely qualified to speak into a microphone.
* Excepting those players armed with a 30-aught-six.
** Why didn't Sessions mention Judge Sykes's forceful affirmation of Justice Butler's ethical integrity? Because Sessions is ultimately a political scam artist with very little knowledge of what he speaks.
*** Butler has received the American Bar Association's highest rating, the same accorded both John Roberts and the recently offended Samuel Alito, who, incidentally, was taken aback because President Obama paraphrased a couple of remarks from Justice Stevens's dissent in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
From whence the shock? Had he not read it? He must have. Because he signed on to Justice Scalia's gratuitously sarcastic concurring opinion. Those are the type of guy that Jeff Sessions loves so well.
February 5, 2010
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7 comments:
This is good stuff. Sessions still rages from back when his nomination was rejected.
"Breathtaking inanity."
Meanwhile, the senior senator from that fine state is ransoming the entire American body politic for a large scrap of pork.
We R All Alabama Now.
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III reminds us every day that it was a very good idea to keep him from becoming a judge. Why are the good people of Alambama still willing to let him remain in office?
A fully-developed sense of postmodern irony?
Actually, it's because of the southern sense of honor, which is analogous to Underground Man's sense of spite.
Frank Luntz update (see comments).
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