Charlie Crist's Latest Supreme Court Pick is Boiling Conservative Blood For a Change
By Kyle Munzenrieder in Politicks
Monday, Jan. 5 2009 @ 7:30AM
Last month we did some caffiene-fueled theorizing about Gov. Charlie Crist's third Supreme Court appointment and wondered "Will Crist be able to satisfy both his seeming need for diversity and his record for pleasing the right wing in one candidate? ... Or will Charlie have to settle for a minority pick who is more moderate, leaving the court with a balanced ideological view?" We predicted the latter. Turns out maybe we were right. Maybe. Imagine!
Gov. Crist appointed Jorge Labarga, a Cuban-American, to the court, and it is not pleasing Conservatives. RedState.com pushed a last minute campaign for Conservatives to call Gov. Crist in protest, but things moved too quickly and then the site posted, "We must remember this in the future: Charlie Crist had the opportunity to put a conservative on the Florida Supreme Court and he chose not to."
Meanwhile, the wingnuts over at National Review Online took time out of their busy schedule of making William F. Buckley, Jr roll over in his grave and posted an entry declaring that "Labarga has shown no evidence of having a well-formed conservative judicial philosophy."
The first big test of Labarga's ideological convictions may come when the gay adoption ban makes its way to the Supreme Court. We think it's going to take some real conservative legal gymnastics for the court to reinstate the ban, and we'll have to see if Labarga has a GOP leotard underneath his robes.
The Judicial Nominating Committee, which puts a check on the Gov's ability to appoint whomever he pleases, actually gave Crist the chance for a right-minded ideological Cuban American justice by controversially appointing former Jeb Bush and Mel Martinez-aid Frank Jimenez, but the pick was widely panned. Instead Crist was forced to go for another Cuban, Labarga.
Labarga used to be a Republican, but when he was appointed to the circuit court by Democratic Governor Lawton Chiles he re-registered as an independent; he felt politics should have nothing to do with justice. Of course, let's npot forget he played a part in the 2000 recount drama, and handed down a ruling that was beneficial to George W. Bush.
The Judicial Nominating Committee, which puts a check on the Gov's ability to appoint whomever he pleases, actually gave Crist the chance for a right-minded ideological Cuban American justice by controversially appointing former Jeb Bush and Mel Martinez-aid Frank Jimenez, but the pick was widely panned. Instead Crist was forced to go for another Cuban, Labarga.
Labarga used to be a Republican, but when he was appointed to the circuit court by Democratic Governor Lawton Chiles he re-registered as an independent; he felt politics should have nothing to do with justice. Of course, let's npot forget he played a part in the 2000 recount drama, and handed down a ruling that was beneficial to George W. Bush.
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