Obama's Judicial Nominee, Contributions and Correctness

America, watch your back. While Obama is making sure that his killing of Osama is all over the news, there are other things going on that deserve some attention.

Obama's judicial nominations are moving in the Senate. One of his nominees is moving ahead under cover of media darkness. John McConnell, who might be described as an anti-business environmental practice lawyer, appears to be on track for appointment. This might not be a big deal if it were not for the fact that there have been questions about his campaign donation practices. A list of his tens of thousands of dollars in contributions to key Democrats can be found on LegalNewsline.com. As an editorial in the Washington Examiner points out, it appears to be a targeted donation campaign on Mr. McConnell's part. One has to wonder which qualifications the Democrat Senators find more compelling: Mr. McConnell's overwhelming legal experience or his overwhelming campaign donations. Perhaps that's too cynical, so I will assume that Mr. McConnell's liberal supporters would not be moved by vast amounts of money.

The other issue with Mr. McConnell is probably more serious anyway. After the confirmation hearings, Senator John Cornyn referred to Mr. McConnell as "a liar who manipulates ethical standards for his own financial gain." Apparently, Mr. McConnell gave a written statement and testimony under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee indicating that he had no knowledge of certain matters his firm had handled, and then gave testimony under oath (in a deposition for another lawsuit) that he was in fact the lead attorney on those matters and had handled them personally. Now, I don't know whether McConnell did handle those cases or not, and that isn't the issue. The issue, if these allegations by Senator Cornyn are true, is that McConnell doesn't appear to feel compelled to tell the truth under oath, but he believes he's qualified to be a Federal Judge.

This appears to be just the type of person we don't need on the bench. And what is even more frightening is that he is just the type of Quadrant III person that Obama wants; a judge who is not so impaired by the rule of law and ethics that he can't make the "correct" decisions. Americans, don't be so distracted by the news that you forget to watch your back.