Senators, start new beginning now
June 16, 2008
BALTIMORE - Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Benjamin Cardin right now have power to
shape the future of our nation. They can set the new direction and attitude.
They can prove to America that Democratic cries for a new beginning are not just
hollow party rhetoric.
And while they are at it, they can serve justice, relieve the beleaguered U.S.
4th District
Court of Appeals and put an excellent choice for judge on the bench.
They readily admit Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein would be a good
judge. In fact, they say the main reason they are blocking his nomination is he
does such a great job here in Maryland. The other reasons they give are patently
specious.
Politics, they say, has nothing to do with keeping off the most shorthanded
appeals court in the nation this Republican who clerked for Reagan Supreme Court
nominee Judge Douglas Ginsburg before being hired and promoted by the Clinton
Justice Department. IQ is not the issue. He graduated summa cum laude from
Wharton, cum laude from Harvard and was a Law Review editor.
Now that Virginia’s senators joined hands across party lines to expedite one
appointment, four vacant seats remain, still more than twice as many as any
other circuit court of appeals. The partisan bickering over filling this
influential bench has denied citizens of five states our full share of justice
through the terms of three presidents and surely will into a fourth.
That is an outrage. If Mikulski and Cardin are playing mere politics with
Maryland’s unofficial seat, they betray the people of our state. If they are
waiting out the presidential election in hopes of inflicting an ideologue on the
court and replacing Rosenstein with one as U.S. attorney, they should turn
Democrats’ eight years of allegations against the Bush administration upon
themselves.
For one thing, the 2008 election is a long way from decided. For another, even
if their party’s nominee wins, he has called for a new beginning. Barack Obama
asks all Americans “to believe not just in my ability to bring about real
change in Washington. I’m asking you to believe in yours.”
Really? How can anybody believe in his or our ability to effect change if two
of the smartest, most effective members of the Senate refuse to change?
Senators, we want change today, not seven months from now. The first thing we
want you to change is putting party politics before the greater good of the
people. Stop it.
Show the way. You still have time. The Senate filled the last seat only 65 days
after President Bush’s nomination.
Use Rosenstein’s appointment to light a beacon on Capitol Hill that those who
call for change can change themselves.
Frank Keegan (http://www.examiner.com/a-1439259~Senators__start_) wrote:
Editorial
Senators, start new beginning now
The Baltimore Examiner Newspaper
2008-06-13
