Political Pandering with a Pinch of Hypocrisy

This morning, the New York Times published a particularly compelling editorial criticizing President Bush's dismal record when it comes to nominating competent and fair-minded judges as well as high-level government officials.

To hear Mr. Bush tell it, he has been the nation’s meritocrat in chief. The man who brought us Alberto Gonzales to head the Justice Department and Michael Brown to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency said at the Thursday gathering that he had “nominated skilled and faithful public servants to lead federal agencies and sit on the federal bench.”

President Bush has repeatedly put up judges who are hostile to worker, consumer, and minority rights and who support drastic expansions in exectuive power. His claims that his nominees are being unfairly delayed are nothing but a political ploy to distract the public from the truth -- that the many vacancies lingering in our judiciary remain unfilled solely because he refuses to cooperate with Congressional Democrats and put forward reasonable consensus nominees.

To read the entire NY Times op-ed, click here. Also, to see AFJ's press statement on this matter, check out our website here.