Thanks to Rafe Coburn for pointing me to this Village Voice piece by Nat Hentoff, causing me, like Rafe, to reconsider my oppositoon to the Bush nomination of Charles Pickering to a federal judgeship on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Hentoff: “…in some 50 years as a reporter, I have seldom seen such reckless, unfair, and repeated attacks on a person—not only by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee but also by organizations that gather financial contributions because of their proclaimed dedication to civil rights, civil liberties, and honest research. (People for the American Way, Alliance for Justice, et al.)” The arena of judicial nominations is the fiercest seat of partisan politics, where the noun “opposition” can always be prefaced by the adjective “kneejerk.” Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee feel they have alot of payback to do for how the Republicans treated Clinton’s nominees. Hentoff essentially says Schumer, Leahy and the like ought to be ashamed of themselves, and that their reputation hangs in the balance as much as does Pickering’s career. One person whose integrity has always gone unquestioned for me has been Hentoff and, by his rendition, Pickering sounds not only like the best one could expect from the Bush dysadministration but a conscientious nomination under any circumstances. What do you think?