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PissingOffTheLeft@excite.com
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WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 - The Senate today confirmed President Bush's
choice for the federal appeals court that handles cases from
Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas despite complaints from many
Democrats and from civil rights organizations that he is not committed
to racial equality.
By 59 to 38, the Senate confirmed Judge Leslie H. Southwick to a seat
on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Nominations to that court are often sensitive because of the region's
history of discrimination, and this one was no exception, as some
civil rights advocates accused Democrats of cynical deal-making with
Republicans in return for support on spending bills.
Judge Southwick, 57, a native of Texas, was nominated in January to
fill the seat vacated by Charles W. Pickering. Judge Pickering, who
was also accused of insensitivity on racial matters, was unable to win
Senate confirmation, so President Bush appointed him to a temporary
term that expired in December 2004.
The president hailed the confirmation as "a victory for America's
judicial system and for the citizens of Louisiana, Mississippi and
Texas" and said the judge is "a man of character and intelligence who
will apply the law fairly."
Judge Southwick's supporters have said there never should have been
any controversy over his nomination.
"His life is a life of service," Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of
Arizona, said today. "I believe we should honor him for that. There's
no question that the nation would be well served by his service on the
bench. And also no question that questions about him have been
contrived. And no question that there's more at stake today than the
confirmation of Judge Leslie Southwick."
Mr. Kyl was alluding to the fate of some recent judicial nominations,
which have not been brought to a vote in the Senate because, in his
view, "liberal activist groups" had pressured Democrats to block them.
But Judge Southwick was assured of his "yes or no" vote earlier today
when the Senate voted, 62 to 35, to invoke cloture, a parliamentary
step that ends debate and precludes a filibuster. The 62 votes were
two more than needed to turn aside a filibuster threat.
Nine Democrats and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent from
Connecticut, joined the Senate's 49 Republicans in voting for
confirmation, despite a denunciation of the nominee by Senator Harry
Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader.
"It took the courageous action of judges on the Fifth Circuit to carry
out the Supreme Court's desegregation decisions and destroy the
vestiges of the Jim Crow era," Mr. Reid said. "Yet Judge Southwick's
record gives us no reason to hope that he will continue this tradition
of delivering justice to the aggrieved."
But Mr. Reid's role was more subtle than his statement indicated,
according to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. The newspaper
reported today that Mr. Reid, despite his personal opposition, did not
work hard to corral other Democrats to vote "no."
Roll Call said that Senators Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Republican
whip, and Ben Nelson of Nebraska, a conservative Democrat, had worked
for weeks rounding up wavering Democrats to support the nominee. In
return, the newspaper said, Republicans will help Democrats in
negotiations with the White House over spending measures.
Mr. Lott did nothing to discourage that impression. "Good-faith
efforts on one side beget good-faith efforts on the other side," he
said in an interview with Roll Call.
But a spokesman for Mr. Reid disputed Roll Call's suggestion that he
had struck a deal. "The fact is that Senator Reid opposed the nominee
from the start," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for the senator. Mr.
Manley noted that the senator spoke at length against Judge Southwick
before the votes today.
Judge Southwick's critics have pointed to some of his decisions as a
Mississippi state appeals court judge. In one case, he upheld the
reinstatement with back pay of a white state employee who had used a
racial epithet about another worker; in another, he joined a majority
opinion that denied a bisexual mother custody of her child.
But Judge Southwick's supporters have said he is eminently qualified,
intellectually and personally. He served on the Mississippi Court of
Appeals from January 1995 through December 2006 and was a deputy
assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice's Civil
Division from 1989 to 1993. He is now a visiting professor at the
Mississippi College School of Law, where he has been an adjunct
professor since 1998. In 2005, he served in Iraq as a member of the
Mississippi National Guard.
Senator Dianne Feinstein of California was a key Democratic supporter.
She provided the deciding vote in the Judiciary Committee, which
endorsed Judge Southwick by 10 to 9 in August. The senator called the
judge "a qualified, sensitive and circumspect person" and anything but
a racist.
But Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights, called the confirmation "a slap in the face to African-
Americans and people of good will." Despite Senator Reid's statement
about the judge, Mr. Henderson said Mr. Reid was responsible for
allowing the judge to be confirmed.
"The majority leader was in control of this process from the time
Southwick's nomination left the Judiciary Committee," Mr. Henderson
said. He called the vote "one of those inside-the-Beltway Senate deals
between Democrats and Republicans in which they sacrificed the
interests of some in furtherance of comity between the parties - let's
just be real about this , that's just what this is."
Other opposition came from the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP
Legal Defense Fund and the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
In addition to Senators Feinstein and Nelson, the Democrats who voted
to confirm Judge Southwick were Daniel Akaka of Hawaii; Robert C. Byrd
of West Virginia; Tim Johnson of South Dakota; Blanche Lincoln and
Mark Pryor, both of Arkansas; and Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, both
of North Dakota.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/washington/24cnd-southwick.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
choice for the federal appeals court that handles cases from
Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas despite complaints from many
Democrats and from civil rights organizations that he is not committed
to racial equality.
By 59 to 38, the Senate confirmed Judge Leslie H. Southwick to a seat
on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Nominations to that court are often sensitive because of the region's
history of discrimination, and this one was no exception, as some
civil rights advocates accused Democrats of cynical deal-making with
Republicans in return for support on spending bills.
Judge Southwick, 57, a native of Texas, was nominated in January to
fill the seat vacated by Charles W. Pickering. Judge Pickering, who
was also accused of insensitivity on racial matters, was unable to win
Senate confirmation, so President Bush appointed him to a temporary
term that expired in December 2004.
The president hailed the confirmation as "a victory for America's
judicial system and for the citizens of Louisiana, Mississippi and
Texas" and said the judge is "a man of character and intelligence who
will apply the law fairly."
Judge Southwick's supporters have said there never should have been
any controversy over his nomination.
"His life is a life of service," Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of
Arizona, said today. "I believe we should honor him for that. There's
no question that the nation would be well served by his service on the
bench. And also no question that questions about him have been
contrived. And no question that there's more at stake today than the
confirmation of Judge Leslie Southwick."
Mr. Kyl was alluding to the fate of some recent judicial nominations,
which have not been brought to a vote in the Senate because, in his
view, "liberal activist groups" had pressured Democrats to block them.
But Judge Southwick was assured of his "yes or no" vote earlier today
when the Senate voted, 62 to 35, to invoke cloture, a parliamentary
step that ends debate and precludes a filibuster. The 62 votes were
two more than needed to turn aside a filibuster threat.
Nine Democrats and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent from
Connecticut, joined the Senate's 49 Republicans in voting for
confirmation, despite a denunciation of the nominee by Senator Harry
Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader.
"It took the courageous action of judges on the Fifth Circuit to carry
out the Supreme Court's desegregation decisions and destroy the
vestiges of the Jim Crow era," Mr. Reid said. "Yet Judge Southwick's
record gives us no reason to hope that he will continue this tradition
of delivering justice to the aggrieved."
But Mr. Reid's role was more subtle than his statement indicated,
according to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. The newspaper
reported today that Mr. Reid, despite his personal opposition, did not
work hard to corral other Democrats to vote "no."
Roll Call said that Senators Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Republican
whip, and Ben Nelson of Nebraska, a conservative Democrat, had worked
for weeks rounding up wavering Democrats to support the nominee. In
return, the newspaper said, Republicans will help Democrats in
negotiations with the White House over spending measures.
Mr. Lott did nothing to discourage that impression. "Good-faith
efforts on one side beget good-faith efforts on the other side," he
said in an interview with Roll Call.
But a spokesman for Mr. Reid disputed Roll Call's suggestion that he
had struck a deal. "The fact is that Senator Reid opposed the nominee
from the start," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for the senator. Mr.
Manley noted that the senator spoke at length against Judge Southwick
before the votes today.
Judge Southwick's critics have pointed to some of his decisions as a
Mississippi state appeals court judge. In one case, he upheld the
reinstatement with back pay of a white state employee who had used a
racial epithet about another worker; in another, he joined a majority
opinion that denied a bisexual mother custody of her child.
But Judge Southwick's supporters have said he is eminently qualified,
intellectually and personally. He served on the Mississippi Court of
Appeals from January 1995 through December 2006 and was a deputy
assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice's Civil
Division from 1989 to 1993. He is now a visiting professor at the
Mississippi College School of Law, where he has been an adjunct
professor since 1998. In 2005, he served in Iraq as a member of the
Mississippi National Guard.
Senator Dianne Feinstein of California was a key Democratic supporter.
She provided the deciding vote in the Judiciary Committee, which
endorsed Judge Southwick by 10 to 9 in August. The senator called the
judge "a qualified, sensitive and circumspect person" and anything but
a racist.
But Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights, called the confirmation "a slap in the face to African-
Americans and people of good will." Despite Senator Reid's statement
about the judge, Mr. Henderson said Mr. Reid was responsible for
allowing the judge to be confirmed.
"The majority leader was in control of this process from the time
Southwick's nomination left the Judiciary Committee," Mr. Henderson
said. He called the vote "one of those inside-the-Beltway Senate deals
between Democrats and Republicans in which they sacrificed the
interests of some in furtherance of comity between the parties - let's
just be real about this , that's just what this is."
Other opposition came from the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP
Legal Defense Fund and the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
In addition to Senators Feinstein and Nelson, the Democrats who voted
to confirm Judge Southwick were Daniel Akaka of Hawaii; Robert C. Byrd
of West Virginia; Tim Johnson of South Dakota; Blanche Lincoln and
Mark Pryor, both of Arkansas; and Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, both
of North Dakota.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/washington/24cnd-southwick.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
