well, thye got their way in the Schiavo case, as Foxnews is reporting

Until now I never quite understood the Mencken quotation on Ace's masthead.

Its not so bad unless you have a system like in Florida. The judges are elected, and the bench is often populated with people who go into public service because they aren't good enough to make money in private practice.

Actually, LauraW, I'd take Florida's system of electing judges over other versions. It at least gives the public some safeguard against judicial overreach, in the form of direct accountabillity through competitive elections.

The State system's (as opposed to Federal) that I don't like are the ones that take it out of the hands of the voters, and instead make the Governor, or a special "Judicial Screening Committee" responsible for all the judicial selections. These committees often get up to all sorts of nonsense, such as placing an emphasis on "diversity" appointments rather than "merit" appointments.

Jack M., that's exactly the sort of system Florida has at the appellate level, although it was even worse before the Judicial Nominating Commissions were filled entirely by gubernatorial appointees. Florida appellate judges are also subject to retention votes every some number of years, but not one has ever been "un-retained" like Rose Byrd was in California. There's something to be said for a mixed system where trial judges are elected but appellate judges appointed, unlike the weirdness of, say, Louisiana, where running for Chief Justice is practically like running for Governor.

As I wrote yesteday, I don't understand the seperation of powers and the system of checks and balances between the three branches of government, something I share with the three branches of government.

But I do know that while the Right controls two of them, we damn well better do everything to erdaicate Liberals from every facet of public life. We need a Clintonista-style puscht of Liberals in all branches of government, especially the courts. Hopefully, Terri has highlighted this problem. I shall pray for her.