Senate Dems slander a good man
I've been negligent when it comes to reporting on the efforts of Senate Democrats to block the nomination of Judge Leslie Southwick to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and their accompanying smear campaign. Fortunately, Ed Whelan at NRO's Bench Memos has been doing his usual great job, and you should check out his posts on the subject (just keep scrolling) from which much of the discussion below is drawn.
Judge Southwick was rated "well qualified" by the American Bar Association. He thus received the highest rating given by this organization, which has certainly not been prone to "grade inflation" when it comes to President Bush's nominees.
It's easy to see why Judge Southwick received this rating. After graduating from the University of Texas Law School in 1975, he clerked for Fifth Cirucit Judge Charles Clark, a very solid judge before whom I appeared a few times. Then, after more than a decade in private practice, he served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division under the first President Bush. From January 1995 through December 2006, he was a judge on the Mississippi Court of Appeals. Meanwhile, in 2005 he served in Iraq as a member of the Mississippi National Guard’s 155th Brigade Combat Team. While on active duty, Southwick was Deputy Staff Judge Advocate and then Staff Judge Advocate. And he has been a Habitat for Humanity volunteer in his community since 1993.
The Democrats, led by Senator Durbin, claim that Southwick is a racist, or at least that he is racially insensitive. This accusation is scurillous and has been completely demolished. A. La’Verne Edney, an African-American partner at a law firm in Jackson, Mississippi, served as a law clerk for Southwick. She has written:
It did not matter the parties’ affiliation, color or stature—what mattered was what the law said and Judge Southwick worked very hard to apply it fairly. Judge Southwick valued my opinions and included me in all the discussions of issues presented for decision. Having worked closely with Judge Southwick, I have no doubt that he is fair [and] impartial.
Similarly, Patrick E. Beasley, another former Southwick clerk who is African-American, movingly states:
On the issue of fairness to minorities, I speak from personal experience that Leslie Southwick is a good man who has been kind to me for no ulterior reason. I am not from an affluent family and have no political ties. While I graduated in the top third of my law school class, there were many individuals in my class with higher grade point averages and with family "pedigrees" to match. Yet, despite all of typical requirements for the clerkship that I lacked, Judge Southwick gave me an opportunity. . .Judge Southwick is a fair man.
Finally, former Mississippi supreme court justice James Robertson, a Gore and Kerry supporter who has known Southwick for two decades, praised Southwick profusely in a letter to Senators Leahy and Specter. According to Justice Robertson “there is not a hint of racism in Judge Southwick’s being.” Robertson states that he is “certain” Southwick’s two longtime African-American judicial colleagues would concur with this assessment if they were not prohibited by state judicial rules from providing such endorsements.
In evaluating judicial nominees, the ABA carefully scrutinizes issues of character. In this connection it specifically investigates whether the nominee has “freedom from bias and commitment to equal justice under the law.” If the ABA’s investigation had yielded any evidence that Southwick is racist or racially insensitive, as Durbin and other leftists claim, the ABA certainly would not have awarded him its highest rating.
What, then, is the basis for the left's claim? I'll provide the sorry answer to that question in my next post.
JOHN adds: This is a time, sadly, when scoundrels are in control in Congress. Slander is what they do best.
