Senators Feingold and Kohl “announced the activation of an 11-member federal nominating commission responsible for making recommendations for the Federal Judgeship vacancy in the Western District of Wisconsin and the U.S. Attorney vacancy in the Eastern District of Wisconsin.” The commission is to render “fair and independent advice” to the senators, in Senator Kohl’s words. Past releases have described it as “a bipartisan body.” Senator Feingold said on the Senate floor: “The composition of the Commission assures that selections for these important positions will be made based on merit, not politics.” He hailed “this bipartisan process” and its “collaborative nature.” Another Feingold/Kohl release refers to it as a “merit selection panel.” In a letter, the Senators said “we have a long history in Wisconsin of using a bipartisan merit selection commission to help us evaluate candidates for federal appointments. ”
The charter provides, however, that when the President and both WI Senators are from the same party, then each senator gets four picks and the state bar gets two picks. As that’s the case, let’s see who we got for the next two years (all donation data from Open Secrets (federal) and WDC (state)):
Stephen Glynn (Kohl / atty): He’s given tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic politicians, and Linda Clifford and Shirley Abrahamson.
Nathan Fishbach (Kohl / atty): His recent donations include Jim Doyle, Tom Barrett, Louis Butler, and Shirley Abrahamson.
Christine Bremer Muggli (Kohl / atty): immediate past president of the Wisconsin Association for Justice (the plaintiffs bar). Tens of thousands in donations to Democrats and liberals, including Shirley Abrahamson, Linda Clifford and Louis Butler.
Michelle Behnke (Kohl / atty): Donations to lots of Democrats and liberals, including Louis Butler and Linda Clifford.
Ken Calewarts (Feingold / atty): Thousands of dollars to Feingold and other Democrats.
Charles Curtis (Feingold / atty): Thousands of dollars to Feingold and other Democrats, and Shirley Abrahamson.
Peg Lautenschlager (Feingold / atty): former Democrat Attorney General of Wisconsin.
Harvey Temkin (Feingold / atty): Thousands of dollars to Feingold and other Dems.
Susan Hansen (State Bar / atty): Donations to Feingold and Obama for President.
Thomas Sleik (State Bar / atty): Thousands of dollars to Democrats, and to Louis Butler, Ann Walsh Bradley, Shirley Abrahamson, and Linda Clifford.
For Western District vacancies, the Commission is chaired by the Dean of the UW Law School; for Eastern District vacancies, by the Dean of the Marquette Law School.
I realize elections have consequences. I wished Republicans talked more about the important effects of elections on who becomes judges. So if Obama wants to appoint liberal judges, and Kohl and Feingold want to support him in doing so, that’s what they get for winning. However, when you’ve got ten Democrats and one neutral, attorneys all, serving on this Nominating Commission, let’s be clear: this is not “bipartisan” and it is not “merit selection.” It is liberal Democrat lawyers selecting from among their friends whom to recommend to be a federal judge. To call this particular incarnation of the Commission “bipartisan” or “nonpartisan” or “fair and independent” would be laughable.
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You have to wonder why Feinie nominated Lautenschlager.
[...] for a while here at GOP3, and we were quite happy to see Michael Gableman win that race. We also pointed out when the Commission was convened that it consisted of “10 Democrats and 1 Neutral,” contrary to [...]