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BUSH SAYS DEMS WON'T DETER HIM FROM TAPPING STRICT CONSTRUCTIONISTS TO BENCH
  by MONTANA NEWS ASSOCIATION

By Jim Brown
January 30, 2007

(OneNewsNow.com) - A White House spokesman says President George W. Bush has not abandoned his commitment to appointing strict constructionists to the federal bench and will continue to nominate conservative judges who interpret the law rather than write it.

President Bush will soon be announcing a series of nominations to the federal bench. Earlier this month, four of the president's appellate court nominees voluntarily withdrew their names from consideration after years of having their confirmations blocked by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Patrick Leahy, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, says only "consensus nominees" will win confirmation under the Democratic majority. But White House press secretary Tony Snow says President Bush remains committed to appointing conservative judges, despite Senate Democrats' obstruction of many of his nominees.

What the president said in his recent State of the Union address, Snow notes, "is 'I've got an obligation to make sure we have good judges on the bench, and Congress has an obligation to give each of these people an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor.'

"That didn't happen before," the White House spokesman admits, but he says Bush has not given up the fight to see future nominees get a straight up-or-down vote, "because it's absolutely essential, not only for filling up and setting the right kind of precedent for filling the judiciary, but also for the president to maintain his commitment."

The president remains determined to appoint "judges who interpret rather than write law," Snow says, "and who rebuild public confidence in the judiciary by remaining faithful to the Constitution."