Free Republic

<p>One up and nine to go. That's the count of appellate court nominees now that Judge Leslie Southwick was confirmed yesterday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit after a dreary Senate fight of many months.</p> <p>Unanimously approved by the Judiciary Committee for a District Court judgeship, Judge Southwick should have been a consensus choice for the appellate bench. Instead, the judicial left used the excuse of his Mississippi provenance to play racial politics because the Fifth Circuit lacks a black judge. He was deemed unacceptable simply because he is white.</p>

In a sharp rebuke to the Democratic base, the Senate on Wednesday confirmed Leslie Southwick to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit after 12 Democrats, together with one Independent, shrugged off the strong opposition of their party’s leaders and joined a united Republican Conference. The vote buoyed a Senate GOP conference that has been dogged by scandals and put on the defensive over Iraq, and it marked the first of two GOP victories on the day. Shortly after Southwick was confirmed, Republicans blocked Democratic-led efforts to help children of undocumented immigrants attend college, likely...

10/24/2007 By LAURIE KELLMAN / Associated Press The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Judge Leslie Southwick to the federal appeals court in New Orleans after Republicans overpowered objections by Democrats who said he wasn't sensitive enough to the region's history of race relations. The 59-38 vote, a rare Republican victory in a Democratic-led Senate, was sealed after the nomination survived its main obstacle, a test tally moments earlier in which a dozen Democrats sided with Republicans to thwart a filibuster. That left Democrats without the power to block Southwick's confirmation, even after a heated debate that raised the pain of civil...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Judge Leslie Southwick to the federal appeals court in Mississippi despite complaints by some Democrats that decisions he supported were racially insensitive and inappropriate for a region still shadowed by civil rights struggles. The 59-38 vote on confirmation was sealed after the nomination survived its main obstacle, a test tally moments earlier. Majority Democrats pressured by labor unions and other constituencies did not have the votes to filibuster, or block, Southwick's confirmation. The Congressional Black Caucus warned that there would be consequences for Democrats at the ballot box. "We regard this as...

Dianne Feinstein just said she will vote for cloture and in favor of his nomination- looks like she has withstood the liberal barrage against him. This bodes very well for his confirmation.

BEFORE BEING nominated by President Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, Leslie H. Southwick served for almost 12 years on the Mississippi Court of Appeals, where he participated in thousands of cases spanning the gamut of civil and criminal law. A panel of the American Bar Association unanimously found Judge Southwick to be "well qualified" for the promotion, its highest ranking. Yet congressional opponents have latched on to two opinions that Mr. Southwick joined, but did not write, to argue that he is unfit for the federal appeals post. ... Adding to the discomfort of...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) surprised both liberal and conservative activists Thursday by voting with Republicans on the Judiciary Committee to move a controversial conservative judicial nominee to the Senate floor. Feinstein voted with nine Republicans to pass Leslie Southwick, President Bush’s nominee to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, despite the objections of Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and members of the Democratic leadership who sit on the panel. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), a member of the Democratic leadership team, both voted against Southwick. Feinstein’s support for Southwick is surprising because she...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democrats on Wednesday threatened to block Republicans from forcing a vote on a Mississippi judge in a new fight in the well-trod arena of judicial confirmations. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he would move to kill the Republicans' symbolic resolution calling for a vote of the full Senate on the appeals court nomination of Leslie Southwick of Mississippi. The motion could come as early as Thursday. Democratic leaders wanted to wait to see if the nomination survived a Thursday session of the Senate Judiciary Committee, several officials said. Republicans said any vote on Southwick's...

<p>The denizens of Silicon Valley, joined by a peanut gallery from Wall Street and elsewhere, have long held two divergent views of the man who runs Oracle Corp. Call them Larry the Bad and Larry the Good.</p> <p>Larry the Bad runs a pirate ship masquerading as the world's second-largest software company. When he's not zooming around in his Marchetti S211 jet fighter -- spoilsports in Washington turned down his request for a personal MiG-29 -- he's trash-talking the "morons" who run most corporate IT shops and the "monopolist" (guess who?) who peddles them "old garbage." His salesmen push half-baked goods and train on "Sopranos" reruns; his accountants moonlight at Cordon Bleu. He is the only person in history who has lost a billion dollars a week for a year. As long as Stanford keeps turning out good-looking 22-year-old blondes, he will date them. And he has never met a new technology he didn't like.</p>