Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
What’s the matter with Sen. John Walsh? He joined six other Democrats in voting against confirming Debo Adegbile as head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
Did Walsh do that because law enforcement officers hate Adegbile for serving as an appellate attorney for a death row inmate convicted of killing a policeman? Or, did he have a principled reason for his vote?
In a scathing essay, Think Progress observed:
Although most of these senators have yet to offer an explanation for their votes — and the Senate offices ThinkProgress contacted shortly after the vote were not especially forthcoming — it is likely that their votes were motivated by a campaign to disqualify Adegbile because of a high profile case the NAACP LDF participated in during his time with that organization.
In 2008, a federal appeals court unanimously held — with two Reagan appointees on the panel — that procedures used during a convicted cop killer named Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death penalty hearing violated the Constitution. Specifically, the panel of predominantly Republican judges concluded that the trial judge gave the jury a confusing form that could have been read to require a death sentence unless every single juror agreed to a life sentence. The NAACP LDF filed an amicus brief on Abu-Jamal’s behalf.
Before becoming Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Roberts once did the same thing, providing 25 pro bono hours representing a mass murderer:
That man, John Errol Ferguson, killed eight people. (Despite the help of one of the nation’s top lawyers, Ferguson was executed in Florida last year.)
The difference between what Adegbile and Robert did? Adegbile represented a man convicted of killing an officer of the law. Roberts represented a man accused of killing just ordinary human beings. That, at least in the eyes of Sen. Mitch McConnell, makes Adegbile a cop-killer advocate instead of a lawyer providing his client with the best possible defense.
McConnell opposed Adegbile because McConnell opposes all of President Obama’s nominations. And as a practical matter, no political penalty accrues to a white Republican senator from Kentucky for voting against a black man nominated by a black president.
That’s McConnell’s excuse for voting against Adegbile. What’s Walsh’s?