LESLIE SOUTHWICK-- BUSH'S LATEST CORPORATE TOOL HEADED FOR THE FEDERAL JUDICIARY WHILE DEMOCRATS MUTTER IN THE BACKGROUND... OR CHEER

Bush's latest racist, gay-bashing corporatist nominee

Dianne Feinstein disgraced herself a couple of weeks ago by abandoning Democrats attempting to derail Bush latest hideous judicial appointment. Today's Washington Post carries a clear explanation of what Feinstein actually did and how wrong she was, in an Op-Ed by Alliance for Justice's Nan Aron, An Unjust Judge.

To understand the furor over President Bush's nomination of Leslie Southwick to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, one should start with the Goode family of Mississippi.

A propane heater exploded in their house, killing their granddaughter. The Goodes sued the manufacturer. After the trial, new evidence emerged demonstrating that the company had provided inaccurate information about servicing the heater. Yet, in a dissenting opinion, Southwick argued that the Goodes didn't deserve a new trial.

And that really is just the start. Toxic chemicals at the workplace causing workers' illness. Southwick says "Tough luck, commie bastard. Go die quietly." That Southwick is a vicious racist is something the Bush Regime expects the Senate to overlook because it's part of the "culture" of Mississippi. The only Democrat who seems to have bought into this was Feinstein.

Why are so many unions opposed to Southwick? Because Southwick voted against the interests of injured workers and consumers in divided decisions 89 percent of the time. Why are civil rights groups opposed? Because he also voted overwhelmingly -- 54 of 59 times -- against defendants alleging juror discrimination. That prompted his own colleagues on the Mississippi Court of Appeals
to accuse him of "establishing one level of obligation for the State, and a higher one for defendants on an identical issue." Southwick, they charged in a dissent, placed his "stamp of approval on the arbitrary and capricious selection of jurors."

...A nominee's record is the best predictor of what he or she will do on the bench. Southwick's record predicts that those in the 5th Circuit's jurisdiction have much to fear regarding their legal rights and protections. Moreover-- and overlooked by the Post-- the patterns in Southwick's record fit this administration's pattern of behavior. For with the assistance of conservative activists, allies in the Senate and in well-funded interest groups, and the amen chorus of commentators such as Will, George W. Bush has appointed a succession of appellate judges who will serve his administration's ideological agenda long after he has left office.

Will the new Democratic majority in the Senate continue the policy of the past several years of rubber stamping all of Bush's worst judicial nominations, packing the courts with virulent right-wing activists? With Democrats like Feinstein, Baucus, the 2 Nelsons and Landrieu, probably yes. That is why it is so crucial to defeat the fake moderate next year in Senate races from Maine to Oregon. Senate races in 2008 will highlight candidates' judicial nominations records. Rubber stamp Republicans like Susan Collins, Norm Coleman, John Cornyn, Gordon Smith, John Warner, Mitch McConnell, Larry Craig, James Inhofe, John Sununu, Lamar Alexander and Pete "Sneaky Pete" Domineci are exactly what we don't need in the U.S. Senate. Blue America has already endorsed two solutions to that problem-- Tim Allen (D-ME) and Rick Noriega (D-TX)-- two Democrats who will be nothing like Susan Collins, John Cornyn... or Dianne Feinstein.