While raising money for the Republican Party and various Republican candidates for Senate seats, President Bush announced his resolve to push for conservative judges to the federal courts. On his three-state fundraising tour, Bush told crowds, “We’ve got to get good, conservative judges appointed to the bench and approved by the United States Senate.” Earlier this month, the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected the nomination of reactionary anti-women’s rights, anti-civil rights Judge Charles W. Pickering, Sr. of Mississippi to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), a member of the committee, warned that conservative nominees who would destroy the balance of the federal courts would continue to be rejected. “If the president sends us judge after judge who is way out of the mainstream, it’s going to create gridlock. The view that it’s “my way or the highway’ is not going to get us anywhere,” said Schumer.
Bush, however, is still pushing for his way, as his fundraising tour, an unabashed attempt to raise money for Republican candidates in order to regain control of the Senate after the November elections, showed. If the Republicans regain the majority in the Senate, they will again control all of the Senate committees, including the Judiciary Committees, giving President Bush more leeway in securing his reactionary nominees to the Circuit Courts of Appeals and possibly the Supreme Court lifetime appointments.
According to the New York Times, the White House has noted that Republicans are targeting seats in South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, and Georgia for takeover.
TAKE ACTION: Don’t Let Bush Stack Federal Courts with Reactionary Judges
