All the brouhaha over President George W. Bush's judicial appointments and Democratic Senators attempt to block those appointments is merely the latest example of partisan politics. In matters of substance and ideology, there really isn't much to get excited about.
The idea that Bush is appointing "conservative" justices to the bench is just so much hot air! To my knowledge, the only true conservative justice being appointed by Bush is Priscilla Owen. But I need to remind readers that it was Bush's buddy, Alberto Gonzales, who helped sink Priscilla Owen's opportunity to be confirmed by the Senate to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals by ridiculing her position requiring parental notification for underage girls seeking abortion as "an unconscionable act of judicial activism." This was all the excuse Democrats needed to reject her. Therefore, don't be surprised if Bush feeds her to the wolves once again.
The rest of Bush's judicial appointments includes Bill Pryor of Alabama. You remember Bill Pryor, don't you? He is the former Alabama Attorney General who obtained his position promising former Alabama Governor Fob James and the voters of Alabama that he would support Judge Roy Moore's fight to display a Ten Commandments monument "all the way." Then, after becoming Alabama Attorney General, Bill Pryor broke his promise to Governor James and the people of Alabama and became the lead prosecutor against Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore resulting in Moore's dismissal from office.
As I have noted before in this column, Pryor is not only a Judas turncoat and liar, he is a judicial tyrant! Bill Pryor is one of those attorneys who embraces transjudicialism. He actually believes that federal judges do not merely interpret the law, they are the law. Pryor suffers from the same disease that many in the judiciary seem to suffer from these days: the belief that a judge's opinion, not the Constitution, is the law of the land.
Therefore, it is in the best interests of freedom and federalism that Bill Pryor not be granted a permanent seat on the federal judiciary. With every fiber of my being, I hope and pray the Democrats successfully block Pryor's appointment! I cannot think of a person more unqualified for the position of federal judge than Bill Pryor!
By the same token, how many of Bush's additional appointees to the federal bench are actually any better than Bill Pryor? If history is any teacher, there is precious little difference between Republican and Democratic appointed justices.
For example, Republican presidents have appointed numerous liberal justices to the U.S. Supreme Court including Earl Warren (Eisenhower), William Brennan (Eisenhower), Harry Blackmun (Nixon), John Paul Stevens (Ford), Anthony Kennedy (Reagan), Sandra Day O'Connor (Reagan), and David Souter (Bush I). To think that Bush II is going to stack the courts with true conservatives is only wishful thinking.
The truth is, for every one liberal justice appointed by Democrats, we get three liberal justices appointed by Republicans. That in rare occasions we get a true conservative justice such as Scalia or Thomas only serves to dupe conservatives into thinking that somehow Republican presidents will one day tip the scales of the judiciary in favor of true constitutionalists. It's a cruel hoax, my friends.
Neither G.W. Bush nor any other Republican president will ever give us a majority of constitutional justices. The reason? The Republican Party is no more committed to obtaining constitutional government than is the Democratic Party. The sooner conservatives wake up to that reality the sooner they will be able to begin the work of electing genuine constitutionalists to public office.
In the meantime, Democrats and Republicans will continue their dog and pony show by vehemently opposing each other with the intent of energizing each party's constituency groups in order to raise more funds and elect more of their party's candidates to office. All the while, nothing of substance changes in Washington, D.C., especially when it comes to judicial appointments.
In other words, with the exception of Priscilla Owen, it really doesn't matter to a tinker's dam whether President Bush's appointees are filibustered to death or actually seated on the bench. Roe v Wade will not be overturned, abortion on demand will continue to enjoy legal status, courts will continue to deny people the right to display public acknowledgments of God, the rush to institute a hemispheric (and even global) economy will travel full speed ahead, "alternative" lifestyles will continue to enjoy legal protection, and illegal immigration will continue to bask in the protections and amenities of federal accommodations.
If one wants to truly get excited and energized about changing government for the better, get involved in your local and state governments. Washington, D.C., has already gone to Hades, but there still might be time to gain good ground in the states and local communities in order that we might be able to withstand the monstrous juggernaut emanating from the cesspool city on the banks of the Potomac. At least, I would like to think so.
© Chuck Baldwin
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