Michigan Senators Create Crisis by Vetoing Judicial Appointees

The nomination of Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Richard Griffin to the federal bench makes him the latest pawn is an outrageous, lingering stalemate between the White House and the U.S. Senate. It has created a severe shortage of judges.

For years, it was a deadlock between the Clinton White House and the Republican-ruled Senate. Now it's between the Bush White House and the narrowly Democatic Senate - where Michigan's Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow essentially have veto power over appointees from their state.

On Thursday, President Bush nominated Griffin to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has declared a judicial emergency because half of its 16 positions are vacant. Four of the vacancies are Michigan seats.

But there may not even be a hearing this year on confirmation of Griffin and three previous Michigan Bush nominees who have been twisting in the wind for more than a year while politicians play tit-for-tat.

The federal court system has 86 vacancies. The percentage is highest in the 6th Circuit, which handles appeals from federal district courts in Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee.

Gov. John Engler Friday correctly declared the Senate guilty of "misuse of the advice and consent authority." He's particularly frustrated by the vacancies and backlog in the 6th Circuit, where Michigan is appealing federal court rulings that knocked down laws on drug testing of welfare recipients and registries of sex offenders.

Engler told me the problem is so serious he thinks President Bush should consider filling all vacancies with recess appointments of judges who would serve two years without Senate confirmation and then step down.

"America is facing a crisis in our courts," says U.S. Rep. David Camp, R-Midland. "The Senate has failed to see the importance of fufilling its constitutional responsibility."

Traditionally, the Senate Judiciary Committee will not advance a president's judicial nomination without consent of the home state senators. Democrats Levin and Stabenow vow that the four Michigan vacancies in the 6th will not be filled "in the absence of bipartisan compromise."

The shoe was on the other foot before the 2000 election that put Bush in the White House and Stabenow in the seat of Republican Sen. Spencer Abraham, who had balked at Clinton appointees to the court.

Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Helene White and Detroit attorney Kathleen McCree Lewis were nominated to the federal bench by Clinton but never got a hearing in the GOP-controlled Senate. Levin says White's "four-year wait was longer than that of any nominee in Senate history."

After Bush's nomination of Griffin - son of ex-Sen. Bob Griffin - Levin and Stabenow said: "The White House has regrettably opted for stalemate" over the 6th Circuit.

They said they had "made repeated attempts to reach compromise." One would have Bush nominate White and Lewis to appeals and district vacancies.

It was wrong for the Senate to fail to act on Clinton's Michigan nominees. But another wrong won't make things right for Michigan. Enough is enough.

Griffin, Federal District Judge David McKeague, state Appeals Judge Henry Saad and Wayne Circuit Court Judge Susan Neilson should be individually evaluated for Michigan vacancies on the 6th Circuit - not shelved until voters decide Nov. 5 which party will rule the Senate.

The Word God is Unconstitutional

“One Nation, Under Mother Earth, Politically Correct, with Justice for the Few”

Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that God is unconstitutional. Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle called the decision “Nuts”. The entire senate voted 99-0 in favor of a meaningless resolution condemning the ruling. We’ve yet to hear from chief leftist judicial screeners, Senators Leahy (VT) and Schumer (NY). When we do, I’m sure their response will go something like this: “We deplore the recent Ninth Circuit ruling which renders the Pledge of Allegiance Unconstitutional. That is all the more reason for us to screen all of President Bush’s judicial appointees to insure that they are moderate, mainstream.”

Recent events have shown the devastating consequences of “moderate, mainstream” judges. The religion of “environmentalism” can now gracefully replace God thanks to “moderate, mainstream” judges. Federal and State court rulings across the country have ruled in favor of plaintiffs such as insects, plants, animals, rivers, streams and oceans; against evil and vile defendants such as farmers, ranchers, home builders, oil and gas operators, power plant constructors and loggers to name but a few. The defenseless plaintiffs are always represented by the noble Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council or their hastily funded local subsidiary such as “Friends of the (name your favorite plant, insect, animal, stream, river, etc.”. Their funding comes in part, from our tax dollars and is limitless. Energy and power shortages painfully show us the economic devastation of environmentalism. Forest fires ravaging across America show us the fallacy of the zero logging, zero road building, zero brush clearing policies of environmental extremism, as opposed to proper forest management. Extreme environmental pressure on our farmers and ranchers may soon show an even more horrible result if it does not stop. Americans better wake up and realize that the tithing demanded by the worship of Mother Earth, is indeed an expensive one, but it is constitutional: read your children’s school books to find that out.

Should you choose to not worship Mother Earth, there is another new deity to replace the unconstitutional God, called Politically Correct (PC). Our leaders in Hollywood have shown us that historical fact can easily be altered to fit the new religion. Senator Tom Daschle has shown us that the many bills proffered by the President such as Energy, Faith based solutions to Welfare, Economic Stimulation, etc., pale in comparison to a recently prioritized “Hate Crimes Bill” which was defeated. Presumably Middle Eastern Terrorists would have been subject to penalty under the proposed Bill, but I doubt it. State and Federal “moderate, mainstream” judges, have issued some appropriately PC rulings, freeing a man with definitive ties to several of the 911 perpetrators and ruling to open secret proceedings and information to the public, including of course, any curious Al Qaeda types who can read. Thankfully, that was overturned by the Supreme Court. We will see more such PC rulings in favor of those who would murder us and seek to destroy us, mark my words. Thank you Senators Daschle and Leahy. The worship of PC is constitutional, just read your children’s school-books.

The hypocrisy emanating from the “appalled” Democratic Senators, over the outrageous Ninth Circuit Court is sickening. We will hear how horrible this decision is, all the while the evisceration of President Bush’s Judicial appointments continues quietly. Recently, seven former Solicitors General, including three under Clinton, reprimanded Senator Patrick Leahy for his demand that all papers from current judicial nominee Miguel Estrada, be given him. These papers, wrote the former Solicitors, should never be subject to scrutiny or used to derail a nomination. Isn’t it curious that the party claiming to represent minorities is seeking to destroy one just because he is conservative.

If the events of September 11th and the recent judicial rendering that God is unconstitutional aren’t enough to wake up this country there will be a bleak future facing our children. The logjam of Judicial Nominations perpetrated by Majority Leader Daschle, Senator Leahy and their ilk must be broken. The consequences of “moderate, mainstream” judicial rulings are too great to ignore any longer. Please support your State’s Republican Senate candidate(s), to help return sanity to the Judiciary.

End of political rant for today.

Well what have we here! Did you bother to see how many judicial nominations that the Republicans approved of clinton's during his first term? Or see the detailed reasons why they were not approved?

They didn't start holding up nominations until after impeachment when clinton was trying to stack the courts with his cronies and very liberal, let's make the law, judges. And the last six months of clinton's presidency, he really tried to stack the Court with very liberal judges and a lot of them unqualified.

Even the very liberal ABA approves of the vast majority of these judges, but that isn't good enough for Leahy and the rest of the RATS. In fact daschle and company said originally that Bush should make no nominitions as he wasn't the legitimate President. I guess you agree with that too!

The problem is that these judges would be approved if they ever reached the Senate floor -- leahy won't even let the Committee vote on them so they can get to the floor.

As for those two liberal RATS from Michigan, if I were the President, I would make recess appointments of the most conservative judges I could find for Michigan!

Actually, no, I'm not aware of the specific reasons why any of the Clinton nominees were blocked. I presume it's because the Republican Senate didn't approve of their politics, much as is what's going on now in the Democratic Senate. While I'm sure that one can paint some of Clinton's nominees as "very liberal, let's make the law" types, I'm sure that the current Senate can similarly paint some of Bush's nominees as being too conservative and willing to bend the law to suit.

Making recess appointments is certainly within Bush's powers, so if he's got the guts for it he should do just that. Of course, the problem is that if he does, and then the judges involved lose their seats two years later, they then also then lose their livelihoods. So they may not want recess appointments. But that's up to them.

Ask me to hold no brief for Tom Daschle. I'm not a constitiuent of his, and don't approve of a lot of things he does. I think that games were played with the Florida results, but the Supremes have spoken and that's that.

I will also say that I looked at the "butterfly ballot" and don't see any problems with it. We use a similar one in Illinois, where you have to flip through about 12 pages during Presidential years, as we also have retention ballots on state judges, plus state and local initiatives.

What's interesting is that in Illinois, they now have machines that read your ballot before it goes into the ballot box and checks to see if you failed to vote for any candidate in a given race, and if you voted for more than one candidate in a given race. It spotted me not voting for a candidate in a race (it doesn't say which one, you have to look). Picked up numerous errors statewide. I think this is going to be useful, it should cut down on the number of spoiled ballots.

I'm not popular on the left-wing boards, either

I'm surprised, with your views expressed here, I'd think you'd be a hero or a shero over on the dark side.

What you really have to ask yourself is this. Do you want Zacharias Moussaoui to face the death penalty, if guilty? One of Clintoon judges, installed with Republican help, instead of resistance, just ruled the Death Penalty, in his Federal District, unconstitutional. Do you really want insects, animals, plants and geographical features to take precedent over man?

Do you believe in God? If so, why is it so offensive to liberal judges that they always try and shun him from any public utterance.

Have you ever seen any judicial rulings stating that the Devil, Satan, Satanism or Devil worship is unconstituional?

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