LEADERSHIP-- ON THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ, ON THE NOMINATION OF LESLIE SOUTHWICK

Forget for a moment that "Leadership" is also the name of a scurrilous, self-promoting fiction by the Republican's most dishonest candidate, Rudy Giuliani. Last night it was a weapon John Edwards used-- with only mixed success-- to clobber Hillary and Obama. True, the voted against Bush' Iraq Occupation funding but... quietly, apologetically, tepidly, tiptoeing around the issue. Democrats' role in the Iraq fiasco is anything but heroic and while few are as craven and disgusting as Biden-- who is running (successfully as far as I can see) to be Hillary's Secretary of State-- few of them have exercised the real leadership progressives would like to expect from someone who will endeavor to right the wrongs of the catastrophic Bush years. Take a look:



And in the twilight months-- too many of them-- of the most toxic regime ever to be installed in the White House, there will be plenty of opportunities for plenty of leadership. Looking to would-be presidential candidates is always iffy... at best. The nature of leadership makes it "unsafe" for someone trying to forge a wide consensus. Forgery, however isn't what the American people need as an antidote to Bushism.


Last week DWT readers were warned about another Bush regime monstrosity they're preparing to foist on us: KKK-approved Leslie Southwick's nomination to the Court of Appeals. (Be sure and read the comment by Congressman Al Green below the post.) Southwick is a bigoted throwback and his nomination will be on the agenda of the Senate Judiciary Committee this Thursday. So far we have one clear, ringing voice of leadership opposing Southwick-- Barack Obama. I feel confident that Russ Feingold (D-WI), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ben Cardin (D-MD), at the very least, will follow Obama's leadership on this. I'd like to hear Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and the most corporate and untrustworthy of the committeemembers, Joe Biden (D-DE) speak up on this too. Don't expect leadership on this outrageous nomination from the rubber-stamping crew led by Snarlin' Arlen Specter (R-PA), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC, a girl who just can't say no-- to Bush). Let's hope we see it from Democrats.


UPDATE: UNACCEPTABLE NOMINEE

Today's NY Times calls Bush out for the divisive and racist Southwick nomination. The Times is saying what Democratic "leaders" should be saying LOUDLY AND CLEARLY: "President Bush’s latest appeals court nominee, Leslie Southwick, has a disturbing history of insensitivity to blacks and other minority groups. The Senate should reject this nomination and make clear to the White House that it will reject all future nominees who do not meet the high standards of fairness that are essential for such important posts."

A non-negotiable quality for judicial nominees is that they must be committed to equal justice. Judge Southwick, whom President Bush has nominated for a seat on the New Orleans-based United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, repeatedly failed this test as a Mississippi state court judge.
 
He clearly failed the test when he ruled for a social worker who was rightfully fired for calling a black colleague “a good ole nigger.” Judge Southwick is known for siding with employers over employees * but not in this case. In his ruling, he revealed a thorough lack of understanding of the odious impact of such language when he accepted the social worker’s claim that the use of the slur was “not motivated out of racial hatred or animosity directed toward her co-worker or toward blacks in general.” Judge Southwick did not even vote to direct the state to consider a penalty short of firing, as the Mississippi Supreme Court later did.
 
And he failed the test when he joined a majority opinion that denied a bisexual mother custody of her child. Adding insult to injury, he joined a concurring opinion that went on to berate the mother for her “decision to participate in a homosexual relationship” and reminded her that one of the consequences of her “exertion of her perceived right” was that she might lose her child.
 
The Magnolia Bar Association, an association of black Mississippi lawyers founded when the state bar was restricted to whites, has urged the Senate to reject the nomination, saying, “We question whether Judge Southwick will properly enforce the law when it comes to the rights of those who are unpopular and who are marginalized by the political process.” They are right. After his performance as a state court judge, it would be hard for a black person with a discrimination case, or a gay person with a family law issue, to have any confidence that Judge Southwick would treat them fairly.
 
Judge Southwick’s judicial record also shows the usual pattern of President Bush’s judicial nominees: insensitivity toward workers, consumers and people injured by corporations. The federal appeals courts are already overloaded with judges who hold these biases.
 
When the voters put Democrats in the majority in Congress last fall, they were sending a message that the era of extremism in Washington should come to an end. Senate Democrats can show that they understood this message by rejecting Judge Southwick and insisting on a more moderate nominee, who will respect the rights of all.

Still no word from Biden who has been, rather incongruously, trying to portray himself as some kind of a leader as he campaigns, furiously, for the Secretary of State job.