by TChris

Judicial appointments aren't a sexy campaign issue -- they don't raise emotions like war and health care -- but it's important to bring the Bush administration's record to the attention of voters nonetheless.

First, progressives must take the Kerry campaign slogan to heart and realize that restoring balance to the federal judiciary is at the core of “letting America be America again.” It means discarding the paralyzing presumption that court appointments are so much esoterica, or “inside baseball,” as one dismissive Washingtonian said.

It's time to restore balance to the federal courts, and that requires recognition that many of the judges who ascended to the bench during the Reagan/Bush/Bush years have been anything but moderate.

The lesson for progressives in the rehashing of Reagan’s legacy is that at the dawn of the GOP’s 12-year reign, Reagan’s team created a delivery system for moving right-wing ideologues from classrooms, faculty offices, think tanks, and the temples of commerce onto the bench and then up the judicial food chain. For every extremist like Robert Bork who got bounced, several others made it through without meaningful public scrutiny or Senate criticism.

It's time to take back the courts. Only a Kerry victory can do that.