Monday, May 12, 2008
Editorial: Bush nominates a moderate judge
Both of Virginia's senators like Glen Conrad.
From the RoundTable blog
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With his days in office dwindling, President Bush finally seems to have figured out how bipartisanship works. Last week he nominated Radford native Glen Conrad to serve on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Senate should move on confirmation before the upcoming November election brings the capital to a standstill.
The Republican president and Senate Democrats have been at loggerheads over judicial nominees for years. Once Democrats took control of the Senate, prospects for filling vacancies on the bench dimmed considerably. It didn't help that Bush insisted on nominating extremists.
As a result, openings across the nation have gone unfilled, five of them in the Richmond-based 4th Circuit.
Hoping to break the impasse last year, Virginia's Sens. John Warner and James Webb, a Republican and a Democrat respectively, put their heads together. They came up with a compromise list of qualified jurists who could receive bipartisan support.
In March, President Bush nominated Virginia Supreme Court Justice G. Steven Agee for a seat on the court. Last week, as the Senate Judiciary held hearings on Agee's nomination, Bush made another pick from the list: Conrad.
Now Americans will see if Senate Democrats will act.
Democrats could be tempted to twiddle their thumbs for the rest of the year, hoping their party wins the White House in November and gets to fill judicial slots. Senators up for re-election might also not want to cast a vote opponents would use against them on the campaign trail.
Those are poor excuses for inaction. The Senate could set a strong example by acting quickly. The message would be plain for future presidents: Mainstream, moderate nominees will receive swift action on their confirmation.
To some extent, it is Bush's own fault for waiting so long to trust the considered opinion of Virginia's senators.
Nevertheless, the Senate has an opportunity to set an example for future Senates and to exercise some Pavlovian conditioning with the White House.
Democrats need not act on Bush's more dangerous nominees, but when this president does select a moderate, the Senate should reward him.
