Mud Wrestling Politics

After turning the state legislature on its ear to force redistricting through just a couple of years ago, the TX GoPervs are setting out to dam up the appointments of judges. The love of mudwrestling has gotten the upper hand over any taste for good government, apparently.

With the Democratic party now in control of the legislature and White House, the Party of Nope has taken to making trouble at the expense of getting things done. That's what they like to call nonpartisan. Both senators are from the right wing, and have announced they will fight to keep judgeships from being filled by those who actually won the election.

Two weeks before Barack Obama won the presidency, Texas senators did what they'd done many times before. They invited lawyers to apply for lifetime appointments as federal judges.

Scores of applications poured in. A legal panel handpicked by the Republican senators – said to consist almost entirely of well-connected Republicans, with nary a plaintiff lawyer among them – narrowed the field.

But with Democrats in complete control of the federal government, Texas Democrats say, that process will no longer do. The screening system is on hold, beginning a fight that has already strained relations in Texas' congressional delegation and will test Obama's promises of bipartisanship.

"We've had an election, and the process works differently than if Senator McCain or President Bush was in office," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, who is leading the effort to put Texas Democrats in control of nominations.

The Republican senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, will "have a vote on anyone that is submitted, and I'm sure the White House will make them aware of our recommendations," Doggett added.

The senators say that's not nearly good enough. They've pushed back hard, meeting privately with White House counsel Greg Craig and demanding an ongoing and central role in selecting judges.
(snip)
Cornyn, a Judiciary Committee member who has been at the vanguard of numerous nomination fights, said he wants a "reasonable accommodation" with the White House and will block nominees if Democrats try to circumvent him.

The membership of the committee is, like Darth Cheney's energy advisory group, unknown.

The use of all the obstructions they can come up with has typified the right wing since it lost power in the 2006 election. That the country is badly served has not made a difference to that party. Election makes a difference, as Speaker Pelosi has noted. The difference it makes to the wingers is that they dig in their heels and fight anything that might actually serve the voters.

Bogging down the court system is the price the Texas senators feel the country has to pay for their being given a position of power. Oaths of office to the contrary, the two that swore to serve are determined once again to hold back anything that actually would work in the public interest once again.

Adults are really needed in public office, and these two don't qualify.