Bush Bypasses Congress


Good job.

Sidestepping a two-year congressional battle, President Bush is promoting federal Judge Charles Pickering of Mississippi to an appeals court, at least temporarily, in a slap at filibustering Senate Democrats who question the nominee's civil rights record.

Such appointments, which need no Senate confirmation, are valid until the next Congress takes office, in this case in January 2005.

"Again, I call on the Senate to stop playing politics with the American judicial system and to give my nominees the up-or-down votes they deserve," he said.

Democrats used the appointment to try and paint Bush as insensitive to minorities, a theme they are expected to revisit during the election campaign.

Democrats have used the threat of a filibuster to block six U.S. Appeals Court nominees this congressional term: Pickering, Alabama Attorney General William Pryor, Texas judge Priscilla Owen, Hispanic lawyer Miguel Estrada and California judges Carolyn Kuhl, nominated June 22, 2001 and still not voted on and African-AmericanJanice Rogers Brown.

Frustrated at the delays, Estrada withdrew his nomination in September.

Bold text was added by me, a few facts that seemed pertinent but somehow didn't make into the 'bias? what bias?' news report.

The trick question is, even if we do get a few republicans in, will they lean towards the traditional (I'm starting to think mythical) republican concept of limited government and high individual freedom, or will they continue to accept democrat's oppression as long as they can slip in a few oppressive measures of their own?

I sure wish the Libertarian party hadn't gone whack-job over the issue of civil defense; I voted for Harry Brown in 2000 but will probably vote Bush in '04. The only politician I can really stand is Ron Paul.