Priscilla Owen, Federal Appeals Court Nominee. (Later Confirmed)

KARL Rove, who had helped select her as the Republican candidate,(Texas Supreme Court) helped raise more than $926,000 for her campaign, almost half from lawyers and others who had business before the court, according to Texans for Public Justice, a liberal group in Austin that tracks Texas campaign donations. Mr. Rove's firm was paid some $247,000 in fees.

Prior to the May 23, 2005 agreement by fourteen Senators to allow an up or down vote on three Bush judicial nominees the Senate had approved 200 Bush judicial nominees and rejected only 10 including Owen, Brown and Pryor who were considered too conservative or otherwise unqualified for a life time appointment to the federal bench. In the case of Owen, Pryor and Brown they already had an ultra conservative judicial track record so it was transparent as to how they would likely vote on issues such as abortion, consumer rights, civil rights or issues involving corporate interests when they conflicted with individual interests. This group is on the extreme right on all these issues.

The Agreement Only Delays The Inevitable.
The minority and majority leaders, Bill Frist and Harry Reid were not parties to the agreement and indeed Frist has said he will still demand an up or down floor vote on the seven remaining previously rejected judges. This is Bush and Karl Rove’s in your face style. While the moderates in the Senate have avoided the filibuster and the threatened rule change to make judicial appointments exempt from the filibuster procedure it is only a matter of time before the issue comes up again.

Bush Wants A Supreme Court Appointee That Will Overturn Roe v. Wade. Frist Will Support The Nominee Because He Wants To Be President. Both Are Pandering To the Fundamental Christians.


The whole point of this judicial standoff is to appease the Fundamentalist Christians who supported Bush in the presidential election and the senatorial elections to allow him to gain a majority in the Senate. Bush and Rove want a fifty year conservative hegemony over the government and the judiciary. Frist wants to be president and in order to secure this voter base for the 2008 election he has to shepherd Bush’s Supreme Court nominee through the Senate. Who ever Bush and Rove nominate will be the most hidebound conservative Bush can find to accept the nomination. It will be someone at least as conservative as Owen, Brown or Pryor if not one of them. The person will be a faith based believer who will have no trouble voting his faith-based beliefs against human, consumer, civil and individual rights. Bush sees the recent agreement as a victory and the opportunity to push the most conservative nominee he can find for the next Supreme Court appointment.

The moderates have bought some time, but the fight will certainly come over the next Supreme Court nominee and it will be a no holds barred contest. Bush and Rove have won in the sense they have at this point obtained confirmation of three of their Circuit Court rejects and probably more while the Democrats prepare for the Supreme Court nomination battle.

Labels: 5/26/05