Spin Dry

Courtesy of Swing State Project, this handy link Ted Kenedy's list of exactly why the Senate is trying to reject some of Bush's unqualified nominees.

The short versions on the three listed:

• Priscilla Owen: has a habit of overturning jury decisions that favored consumers or employees over corporations, as well as second-guessing judges who happened to okay abortions for minors deemed capable of making the decision. But, irony alert: "Owen has been accused of judicial activism by her Republican colleagues on the Texas Supreme Court, including Bush administration Attorney General Alberto Gonzales." So, somehow a pro-corporate, anti-choice loon still manages to alienate people from her own party. Hm.
• William Myers: leans heavily toward the de-regulation side when it goes against the environment, even to the extent that he has been the target of multiple ethics investigations over conflicts of interest, two of which are still ongoing.
• Janice Rodgers Brown: Probably the most heinous offender on the list, she wrote a dissent that "suggested that the First Amendment allows employees to use racial epithets in the workplace" and another one of her decisions "would have barred administrative agencies from awarding compensatory damages in race discrimination cases". On top of that, she opined against a law that would have required paint companies to help pay for treatment for children poisoned by lead and she seems to be very anti-government. She was rated as "unqualified" by three-fourths of state Bar examiners when nominated to California's Supreme Court. But, most heinous of all, and a statement that proves she has absolutely no business wielding a gavel because she understands neither history nor the Constitution:

  Brown told an audience that people of faith were embroiled in a “war” against secular humanists who threatened to divorce America from its religious roots.

  That last statement alone should get her debenched and disbarred for life.

Anyway, both articles are quite good, if not bile-inducing. Go read them.

And remember -- the rightwing has tried to send more "activist" judges to the bench than any other faction in American politics. At least left-leaning judges bother to read the law before they write an opinion.