[Previous entry: "WALTER WILLIAMS ENDORSES THE FREE STATE PROJECT"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Liberal Hate Speech"]

12/27/2003 Archived Entry: "If only he would do this with judges"

IF ONLY HE WOULD DO THIS WITH JUDGES: The Washington Post has reported that President Bush has bypassed the Senate by making a number of recess appointments.

This is the approach he should take to breaking the stalemate over his judicial nominees: If the Democrats won't allow a floor vote on his nominees, he should make recess appointments temporarily filling these slots with even more controversial conservatives. I wonder if Robert Bork is busy...

Replies: 3 comments

That was one avenue I had actually forgotten. If I remember right, Clinton made use of recess appointments.

Posted by Steven Martinovich @ 12/28/2003 06:55 AM EST

Those who seem so enamoured of Bork: READ some of his essays. READ some of his opinions. READ speech transcripts. You do not have to scratch very deep to find a mind that is so hellbent on his own idea of morality and behaviour that he is, at bottom, every bit as much of a statist as Bader-Ginsberg, or Justice Reinhardt of the 9th Circuit.

I felt the same about Bork as many of the rest of you until I actually studied his stuff. So did a cousin of mine. Be mindful of what you wish for.

Posted by bear, the (one each) @ 12/28/2003 11:57 AM EST

I'm familiar with Bork's writings and jurisprudence. While I am often in agreement with him, it is true that he believes in majoritarian, authoritative government rather than adhering to the more libertarian constitutional conservatism of, say, Clarence Thomas.

Bork is the sort of conservative who believes we have too many rights, that the privacy right is non-existent in more contexts than abortion and that the Constitution enumerates fundamental rights as much as it does government powers. On all of these matters I strongly disagree with him.

However, I am only recommending him as a recess appointment. He would not get a lifetime federal judgeship out of the deal; recess appointment expire at the end of the present congressional term. The point of the exercise is as much to deter future filibusters as to temporarily fill the benches with conservative judges. If Democrats are faced with the prospect of people on the bench who are from their perspective worse, they will probably be more open to at least allowing votes on some of Bush's conservative nominees.

Posted by W. James Antle III @ 12/28/2003 03:13 PM EST