Senator Leahy, ranking jackass on Judiciary (and ranking Democrat, more's the pity), issued a statement pillorying Judge Pickering today. He makes several good points, but the following is not one of them:

Had [the President] wanted to take healing action, he could have reached out and selected from among the outstanding African-American lawyers and Mississippi state court judges someone around whom all would unite and who would serve as an outstanding member of the second highest federal court in the country. Those would have been the actions of a uniter, and of someone concerned about ensuring that all Americans saw our federal justice system as one that would treat them all fairly and impartially and provide the highest quality of decision making. Instead, this President is continuing a pattern of conduct that seeks to incite and intimidate. This is part of a pattern of lamentable action and of squandered opportunities.


So now there is a racial litmus test for judicial candidates from Mississippi? Tell me this is a misstatement, Senator.

I noted last week that I was particularly sorry that the Republican majority had chosen that week to resurrect the nomination because of the insensitivity it showed to the Congressional Black Caucus, some of whose members are with us today. The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation had its annual meetings last week. The Honorable Bennie Thompson, a Representative from Mississippi, is a respected member of the Congressional Black Caucus and has opposed this nomination. I know that Chairman Hatch tried to be sensitive to other Members of Congress and I know that he would not go out of his way to offend another Member of Congress, so I am left to wonder why this matter is being forced through the Committee in this way.


Personal feelings about the crook from the Delta (Bennie Thompson) aside, it seems to me that Leahy is saying that judicial candidates who don't get at least a pass from the CBC won't be considered for the federal bench. This is revolting, to say the least.

Boring Orrin has a statement in support. But it doesn't matter. Judge Pickering's been hamstrung by the dimwit from Pascagoula, our cheerleader in chief, Trent Lott, and his stupid Strom-loving. Thank you once again, Trent.

Mississippi's flag woes are back?

Haley Barbour is waving the state flag as part of his campaign for governor. Of course, Musgrove can't, since he helped instigate the whole brouhaha over the flag to begin with. Here's a money quote from a man I've met a few times and admire (but who may just have an axe to grind when it comes to the flag):

David Sansing, a retired history professor who helped the State Flag Commission design a new flag, said Barbour's use of the flag in his campaign is a "thinly-veiled effort to divide the races again."


Sansing is a fine historian. He's also a lifelong academic with the typical disdain for the common people of Mississippi that Ole Miss professors often have. I think he's wrong. And here's why:

Jon Lee, a 28-year-old Jackson State University student who is black, said he does not see what the flag has to do with the governor's race. But he said, "If you want bigger business down here, it's something you do have to get rid of."


Argument by anecdote is weak, granted; and in many parts of the state, the vote on the flag broke down along racial lines. But it also broke down along other cleavages as well. Small business owners in more urban areas voted to change the flag. Lots of businessmen voted to change the flag. Residents of Oxford voted to change the flag. Race was not the only issue in the flag ballot.

Did I vote for the old flag? Yes. Would I have opposed any new flag? No. In fact, you could make a fantastic flag out of the state seal, which is elegant and instantly identifiable as Mississippi. It's patriotic, it's inspiring, and it emphasizes federalism through a borrowed symbol of freedom. Instead, the flag that Sansing and Musgrove's commission designed was weak and derivative, and had absolutely nothing to connect it to Mississippi.

David Sansing explains the history of flags in Mississippi. An Oxford native preaches the Magnolia Flag's superiority. Follow this page to the bottom to see the ass-ugly proposal that lost.

Is Barbour making an issue of the flag vote stupid? Not really. It's a calculated risk for his campaign. Is it useful? I doubt it. I'm still voting libertarian.

Well, the shit has finally hit the fan with Ed Pittman and the Supremes. Senior Associate Justice Chuck McRae, who was unelected last year amids some small controversy, but who do to statutory conspiracy remains on the court until January 2004, has been named in a complaint before the Commission on Judicial Performance by Chief Justice Pittman and Associate Justices William Waller, Jr., Jim Smith, George Carlson, Kay Cobb. The complaint alleges that McRae is a colossal pain in the ass who is mean to Pittman, doesn't like Smith, and likes to preside over cases involving his family members. The money quote in the article? From none other than Dean Rychlak of the Ole Miss Law School (fellow Slav and the man who taught me all I ever forgot about criminal law):

Ron Rychlak, professor at the University of Mississippi School of Law, said watching the McRae hearing may be like watching sausage being made. "The inside look won't be appetizing," he said. "Maybe Halloween is an appropriate time to have this."


Daaamn!

Here's the Clarion-Ledger's editorial on the conflict within the Supremes (when will Diana Ross learn she's part of a group?) And Eric Stringfellow sounds off on the delay in replacing the unelected McRae.

And finally, Marshall Ramsey give us his view of the controversy.

My two cents? McRae is an asshole. Always has been, always will be. He's brilliant and erratic, and he can never get over what he perceives as the grotesque injustice of statutes of limitation, laches, governmental immunities, and any other bars to action in Mississippi. Substantial compliance with the notice requirements of the Mississippi Tort Claims Act? That's Chuck's baby. Another of his hobby horses is doing away with the common-law distinctions between trespassers, licensees, and invitees in premises liability cases that are the only thing standing between Mississippi businesses and bankruptcy.

Is McRae corrupt? No. Is he dumb? No. But he is irascible, angry, and he has a mad hate on for our Napoleon, Chief Justice Edwin Pittman. McRae is also possessed of an idee fixe that plaintiffs cannot get justice in this state. Like all smart people with towering egos, McRae believes that those that disagree with him are not merely wrong, but utterly wrong-headed and morally bankrupt. He believes that his moral authority should guide the judiciary of this state.

Chuck's a cool guy to have at parties, and he writes an entertaining opinion, but cute and charming only lasts so long. Thankfully, Chuck's time is up soon, regardless of this little kafuffle.