If I ever end up in court, charged with a crime, I want a judge who gives money to Moveon.org. If I get a Republican judge, I will surely be sent to death row.
If I get a rightwing judge, I intend to scream and holler just like Congressman Delay. I mean I should have the same legal rights as the Congressman, right?
The right to a trial by a judge or jury of your own political persuasion.
Can we get that in the Constitution? Just think, Planned Parenthood will never again be forced to have a case heard by the likes of Antonio Scalia.
Conservatives will judge conservatives and liberals will judge liberals.
Martha Stewart, what were you thinking of? If only you had insisted on a leftwing judge. I hope everyone is taking notes. The Republican lawmaker is paving the way for a whole new array of legal rights.
Finally, Delay seems to have a judge he can live with, or buy. Judge Pat Priest is only the 4th judge who auditioned for the job of judging the Hammer. Priest is a Democrat, but if Delay isn't hollering, we know what kind of Dem the judge is.
But Congressman Hammer says that judges are not the only people who do not like him. Now he says the entire county is biased against him. Now he's working on the right to a trial in a county of your own political persuasion.
The Congressman Goes Judge Shopping:
The judge, Bob Perkins, who was shown to have made about 30 contributions totaling $5,255 to Democratic candidates and causes since 2001, was replaced at a hearing in Austin last Tuesday, setting off a round of judicial hot potato.
The next to be handed the case, the district administrative judge, B. B. Schraub, a Republican, recused himself after a Democratic challenge. The case then went to the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, Wallace B. Jefferson, a Republican and perhaps the most partisan of all, who quickly handed off the case to an appointee, where it remains apparently for good.
The last man standing was Pat Priest, a 65-year-old semiretired judge from San Antonio. He is a Democrat, and he acknowledged making campaign contributions himself, but only of $150 each to three candidates for the Texas House last year.
"That's it, I'm a tightwad," Judge Priest said in an interview.
George Shipley, a Democrat and former political consultant in Austin, called Judge Priest's selection "tainted," as "the fruit of a poisoned tree." He asked in an interview "if there is one standard for all Texans and another for Tom DeLay because of his power?"
"Tom DeLay stands guilty of judge shopping in the most egregious and abusive form."
Hat tip to Talkleft
Delay indicted Tom Delay Delay Republican Corruption Politics
