Friday, September 14, 2007
Editorial: Dividing, not uniting
Virginia's senators offered bipartisan choices for the 4th Circuit Court. Bush decided to pick an ideologue --and a fight -- instead.
From the RoundTable blog
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President Bush long ago abandoned any pretense at fulfilling his promise to be a "uniter, not a divider." But his latest slap at bipartisanship is egregious, even for him.
Sens. John Warner and James Webb worked together to select five mutually acceptable Virginia nominees for the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
It was a commendable collaboration across the partisan aisle. Then Bush completely ignored their bipartisan advice when he nominated E. Duncan Getchell Jr., a lawyer who not only wasn't on the list, but who was considered and specifically excluded.
Democrat Webb was incensed. "Despite our good faith, bipartisan effort to accommodate the president, the recommendations that Sen. Warner and I made have been ignored," Webb said in a press release.
"The White House talks about the spirit of bipartisanship. ... The White House cannot expect to complain about the confirmation of federal judges when they proceed to act in this manner."
Republican Warner was more circumspect in his reaction, but he made it clear that he was committed to the five recommendations made with Webb.
The White House responded by defending Getchell as a highly qualified attorney, thus missing the point.
Bush may wish the last congressional election never happened, but it did.
As Warner said when the Richmond Times-Dispatch asked why he had approved a different list last year in consultation with then-Sen. George Allen, a list that included Getchell:
"The change is due simply to the fact that as a consequence of the November election, Democrats are now the majority party both in the full Senate and on the Senate Judiciary Committee. They now have a far stronger voice in the selection and confirmation process of judicial nominees."
Bush tends to ignore realities that don't fit nicely into his desires.
He may ignore the new political reality if he wishes, but it won't go away.
Picking any of the five nominees recommended by Webb and Warner would have likely resulted in a smooth, bipartisan confirmation.
Instead, Bush picked a committed ideologue, a member of the ultraconservative Federalist Society, and in doing so he picked a fight with at least one of the nominee's home-state senators -- which almost guarantees Getchell won't even make it to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Meanwhile, the 4th Circuit continues to function with five vacancies on a 15-seat court.
There is, we suppose, a bright side. If Bush continues to choose ideology over bipartisan cooperation, those seats will remain vacant until a new president takes office -- a president who might truly be interested in uniting the nation.
