President Bush used his recess appointment power to put William Pryor on the 11th Circuit. Good for him. According to the LA Times (R), political analyst Larry Sabato believes that:
Pryor's appointment ... will be popular with conservatives because "Bush is sticking it to Senate Democrats — the group most hated by the GOP right."Yep. In a contrarian spirit, however, the Washington Times cites leaders of the Evangelical Right who claim the Pryor nomination (among other things) will rile Bush's base:
Sadie Fields, a Bush supporter and Christian Coalition activist, says she's heard grumbles that Mr. Bush stood aside while the man he nominated for a federal appeals court appointment, Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor, prosecuted that state's popular chief justice, Roy Moore. Mr. Moore was forced from office after defying a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of Alabama's State Judicial Building.(The good folks at Southern Appeal are the go to resource for coverage of Pryor and Moore. There's also a very thoughtful post on Pryor, Moore, and the media from Beldar that is a must read.) Hugh Hewitt blasts the Times story:
Inside-the-Beltway, self-appointed spokesmen for evangelicals may say that evangelicals are upset with President Bush, but out here in the normal world, evangelicals love the President, in huge and very loyal numbers. ... The blogosphere is a much better place to test opinion among the faithful as well, and I don't see a lot of "Dump Bush" sentiment [there]. ... The folks in D.C. throwing stones at the president do good work on their issues, but they shouldn't presume to speak for me or the millions of evangelicals who haven't wavered and won't waver in their support for George W. Bush. It is false to assert there are large cracks in this part of the base.Indeed, blogger Joe Carter of the Evangelical Outpost shreds the Times article with a long list of promises Bush made to the social right - and kept.
Anyway, back to Pryor. According to the LA Times article:
Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic front-runner for the presidential nomination, assailed Bush for taking "yet another action to diminish his credibility with the American people" by bypassing the Senate confirmation process a second time. Kerry said in a statement that Pryor has "a history of partisanship and pursuing an ideological agenda that does not represent mainstream views."As I've explained before, however, John Kerry is so far out of the mainstream that he can't even see it from where he is. So I don't find that argument very credible. The Times also reports that:
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the Pryor appointment a "flagrant abuse of presidential power." "What will the president try next — a recess appointment when the Senate is in recess for a weekend?" Kennedy asked.Maybe. More likely, however, he might try something Howard Bashman suggests; namely, sequential recess appointments:
Thus, perhaps the more relevant question to ask is whether President Bush could give Judge Pryor a second recess appointment once the first expires toward the end of 2005. ... Presumably President Bush could keep Judge Pryor on the bench for up to six years through successive recess appointments assuming the President's reelection this fall.Boy would that stick it to the Senate Democrats. Of course, if Bush really wanted to stick it to the Senate Democrats he would adopt Randy Barnett's proposal for mass recess appointments:
President Bush could threaten to line judicial openings with committed conservative and libertarian recess appointees, people who are too old, too young, too smart, too conservative, or too burned by previous failed nominations to ever be considered for ordinary judicial appointments. Unlike practitioners who cannot abandon their practice for a short stint on the bench, professors who can take a few semesters off and judges with no prospects of higher judicial office would be ideal. It would be like a judicial clerkship program for conservative and libertarian law professors that can continue as long as there is a Republican president.I've said it before and I'll say it again: I would be happy to volunteer to take a two-year leave of absence from UCLA to serve as one of the mass appointees.