[Coleus]

Bush has written off NJ politically, so he does not want to waste any of his "political capital" here in NJ. And given the fact that NJ has two Democrat Senators, he will have a hard time getting them to approve any pro-life candidate.

Federal judicial appointments are usually controlled by the senator(s) of a given state, but if they are both Democrats, then the ranking Republican in the state gets to make the calls, but there is a huge power vacuum in the NJ Republican Party right now -- no one's really in charge.

So, Bush cut a deal with the Democrats a year or so ago. Under its terms, the Democrats get to pick every other judge, and they get to disapprove the ones that Bush picks. In other words, the Democrats get to control 100% of the NJ appointments. This deal allows Bush to ignore what's going on in NJ, but still to get judges confirmed in NJ.

The Democrats agreed not to block his appointments, but he had to agree to let them make every other appointment, and to "vet" his appointments. Thus, no one gets on the federal bench in NJ unless the Dems say so -- which means that we will keep seeing more of the same type of judge (all pro-abortion). But those who are nominated breeze through the confirmation process very easily. (The five who were just confirmed had been rushed through the process BEFORE the elections, something that was not happening anywhere else in the country.) It is doubtful that there will be any change in this arrangement until either (a) the Democrats lose one of the Senate seats or (b) some Republican emerges as the clear victor within the party in NJ and lays claim to the appointment power.

The deal may relate only to district court judges (trial level federal judges) and may not apply to circuit court judges (appellate level federal judges). Nobody really does not know at this present time.

What about Bush's appointment of pro-lifers to the bench? Unfortunately, Bush never committed to this, contrary to the wishful thinking of pro-lifers who were not carefully reading his lips during the 2000 campaign. Bush said something like this, "I will appoint people who will follow the Constitution instead of interpreting it any way they want."

After the election battle left Republicans with only a narrow margin in the Senate (before Jeffords defected and things got even worse), Bush and his administration decided to concentrate on appointments at the appellate level, and not to waste "political capital" on battles on the trial court level.

In any event, rumors have it that it will be a cold day in hell before a known pro-lifer will get a nomination from this administration. So much for appointing pro-lifers to the bench! Although Bush has done some good pro-life things, he and his advisors are still very much adherents of the Republicrat/political school.

[hobbes1]

Look, It is the Lefts fault that Abortion is even a National issue, but lets not kid ourselves, the odds are That Sandra Dee, and Probably Stevens will not make it through a second Bush term, and Hopefully restoring Constitutionalists to Scotus will scuttle Roe, and Each individual state can decide for itself what should be, and the Job of winning peoples hearts over in the remaining states will be that much easier.

[Lancey Howard]

I like your anaylsis.
New Jersey is shot down the liberal toilet forever anyway, so Bush may as well dump a few scumbag judges on the place and pocket some political capital for when it matters.

[Lancey Howard]

So, Bush cut a deal with the Democrats a year or so ago. Under its terms, the Democrats get to pick every other judge, and they get to disapprove the ones that Bush picks. In other words, the Democrats get to control 100% of the NJ appointments. This deal allows Bush to ignore what's going on in NJ, but still to get judges confirmed in NJ

Cool. Smart politics.
Bush has correctly written off New Jersey as the hopeless liberal sewer that it is in order to get Republicans appointed. And even if these particular Republicans are cowardly pro-abortion scumbags, they will at least be better than Democrat pro-abortion scumbags. Every vacancy that is filled with a Republican lifetime appointment is one less that can be filled by a Democrat. The best part is that these New Jersey judges won't go any farther up the food chain anyway if they are pro-abortion, so who cares? Smart.

[GraniteStateConservative]

In any event, rumors have it that it will be a cold day in hell before a known pro-lifer will get a nomination from this administration.

Leahy and Schumer have just been wasting their time for nothing then? Bush has been happy to appoint conservatives to the judiciary. They just haven't won confirmation. It's the blue slip policy that screws things up. California and New Jersey are liberal crap holes for judicial nominees from those states because of it.