- Home
- News Grid
- Local News
- Green Hawk
- Business
- Politics
- School Zone
- Nonprofits
- Missing Pets
- Multimedia
- Arts
- Movies
- Outdoors
- Sports
- News Releases
- Columnists
- Blogs
- Opinions
- Classifieds
- Advertise
- Donate
- Partners
Michelle Malkin: The Obama Way — Bluster, Bully, Bribe
The White House took great offense last week when conservatives suggested President Barack Obama might be trading a judicial appointment for a wavering Democrat’s vote on his health-care reform plan.
“Absurd,” a miffed administration official told Politico.com. Wherever could the American people get such an impression? Let us count the ways.
On Wednesday, the very day Obama hosted 10 swing Democrats who had opposed the expansive health-care takeover bill in November, the White House issued a news release trumpeting the nomination of Scott Matheson Jr. to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Matheson just happens to be the brother of Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah — one of the 10 Dems invited to sip wine and nosh on calorically correct appetizers with the arm-twister-in-chief.
The seat on the 10th Circuit has been vacant for nearly a year. When one of the judges, Michael McConnell, resigned to take a lucrative post at Stanford Law School last summer, Matheson — a Rhodes Scholar, law school professor and dean — let the White House know right away he wanted the job. For nearly a year, there was no action.
Liberal groups have been complaining for months about the glacial pace of Obama’s judicial nominations — a predicament they blame not solely on obstructionist Republicans, but on Obama’s own team of incompetent, indecisive foot-draggers who put the issue at the bottom of their priority list. (It’s worth noting that Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, supports Matheson’s candidacy.)
As the National Law Journal pointed out at the beginning of this year, “the Obama administration has been slower than the Bush administration was in sending judicial nominations to the Senate, submitting 12 circuit nominations last year compared with 28 for President George W. Bush in 2001. The White House last named a circuit nominee on Nov. 4.”
Now, out of nowhere, comes the announcement of Matheson’s nomination — in the heat of White House vote-grubbing to salvage the Democrats’ government health-care designs? To quote Dana Carvey’s old Church Lady character on Saturday Night Live: How conveeenient.
Let us consider the possibility, for a brief moment, that this is all merely coincidence. Is the White House so fantastically blind and tone-deaf that it failed to detect the blood-red flags and blaring alarm bells that Matheson’s judicial nomination would raise coming on the very day Obama was wooing his brother? Incorrigibly corrupt or incorrigibly stupid. Take your pick.
The perception of a judgeship-for-Obamacare-vote deal is, of course, horribly unfair to Matheson, who seems more than qualified for the position. But full blame for creating that unmistakable perception lies squarely at the feet of the rank opportunists in the White House, whose timing is worse than a broken metronome.
This debacle comes on the heels of damning disclosures about other possible White House bribery. Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., admitted to veteran Philly newsman Larry Kane that Team Obama dangled a “high-ranking” position in the administration if he dropped out of the Senate race and left incumbent Republican-turned-Democrat Sen. Arlen Specter alone.
In Colorado, The Denver Post reported last fall that White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina “offered specific suggestions” for an Obama administration job to far-left Democrat Andrew Romanoff if he withdrew his challenge to White House-backed Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.
Earlier this month, The Washington Times noted that Mary Patrice Brown, who was assigned by the Justice Department to oversee an internal investigation into the shady dismissal of the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation cases, is now “the leading candidate for a federal judgeship — for which she is being vetted by some of the same offices she supposedly is investigating.”
So, wherever did we get the impression that pay-for-play is the Obama way? Somewhere, Chicago corruptocrat Rod Blagojevich — who wanted to play, but didn’t get paid — is laughing bitterly.
— Michelle Malkin is author of Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies. Click here for more information. She can be contacted at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
» wrote on 03.07.10 @ 10:07 PM
Get rid of the trial lawyers and insurance companies. Cash and carry only—All American’s would be coverd for cancer or any other serious disease—free.—No illegals allowed in the plan..
» wrote on 03.08.10 @ 04:49 AM
I have met Matheson. He would be an excellent judge. I can assure you he beleives in strict interpretation. Daniel Petry
» wrote on 03.08.10 @ 01:16 PM
Oh crap, I said wait until Obama grows a set in Froma’s post and it looks like he just might have done that. South Chicago, meet Pennsylvania Avenue, the rest of us should start collecting the necessaries.
More Local News »
Michelle Malkin: Virginia Rep. Jim Moran, Racist Pig
Obama critic Rep. Allen West the target of the congressman's latest tirade
Michelle Malkin: The Obamas, aka Mr. and Mrs. Cranky Pants
Tarmac encounter with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer riles the president's, er, sensitive side
Michelle Malkin: The Land of Obama Make-Believe
President's idea of economic recovery includes lowering visa standards and risking homeland security
Michelle Malkin: Despite Conflicts of Interest, Obama’s ‘Razist’ Lobbyist Moves Up
Cecilia Munoz expands the reach of her radical multi-culti advocacy into the White House
Michelle Malkin: Obama’s Super-Czar Is on the Loose
Political end-run gives unfettered power to new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Weather: Fair 54.0º
Search Noozhawk »
