Among the most enduring legacies for any US President are their judicial appointments. Unfortunately, former Attorney General Gonzalez and Gerry Parsky set up an unprecedented "commission" with Senators Feinstein and Boxer to pre agree on any California federal judges.

Unprecedented, in that never before in American history did any President simply give up his right to select who he wanted to serve in the federal judiciary.

Some of us strongly objected [ see LATimes Op-Ed "Lionesses of the Left" , May 26, 2002] a commission  that gave absolute veto power to either Feinstein and Boxer’s.  Generally, a few good judges were selected  of the 23 ‘approved’ with the rest merely  mediocre nominees.

The deal was IF the commission approved, the White House would nominate and both Feinstein and Boxer would support the nominees. 

Boxer finally and officially broke the deal by opposing Jim Rogan’s nomination. Despite her appointee on the Parsky commission voted to approve Rogan earlier. 

There can be zero justification for continuance of the Parsky Commission. Those who remain in the White House with any measurable testosterone levels need to disengage this farce of a commission. 

Parsky’s last few years have been unkind toward his legacy. He wasn’t appointed Secretary of Treasury, despite two opportunities. As President of the UC Board of Regents the most explosive spending and salaries scandal in UC’s history occurred during his watch. 

It’s time to show Boxer, that she should have zero say as to who President Bush should nominate for a life time federal judgeship.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.