Demagogue

The Carpetbagger made a point that I had been meaning to make regarding the fight over judicial nominations.

Republicans are claiming that Democrats are preventing people of faith from being confirmed to seats on the federal bench and point to the 10 filibusters as proof.

The only nominee I can think of who might reasonably provide evidence of this is William Pryor. All the others were filibustered for past decisions they had written or, in the case of the Sixth Circuit nominees, in retribution for the blocking of Clinton judges.

But the idea that Democrats are only blocking people of faith is ridiculous and insulting to those who have been confirmed - people like Michael McConnell, who was confirmed in 2002. As the Carpetbagger said

To date, 205 Bush judicial nominees have been confirmed by the Senate. If the Dems’ “obstructionism” has led to 10 people of faith being “disqualified,” what, exactly, is Trent Lott saying about the other 205? Are we to believe that an evangelical president has filled over 200 federal court vacancies with secular humanists?

Lott’s argument seems to be that Dems are blocking the nominees who take faith the most seriously. In addition to being painfully ridiculous, Lott is implicitly arguing that the other 205 who are on the federal bench don’t take their faith seriously. That, or the anti-Christian bigots in the Senate Dem caucus (most of whom are Christians) are just remarkably inefficient in executing their animus.

If any group of people ought to be upset about Republican allegations that Democrats are preventing people of faith from being confirmed as judges, it ought to be those judges who have already been confirmed.