Missouri’s Mainstream Media: “Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil”
Readers of the Missouri Political News Service have heard a lot about Judge Patricia Cohen. And with good reason. She has repeatedly gone out of her way to stack the 21st Judicial Circuit with left wing judges who are out of the mainstream.
Her most recent shenanigan revolves around the vacancy created by Ellen Siwak’s departure. Given the controversy surrounding the Missouri Plan, and the momentum that continues to build on the side of momentum, it would make sense for the nominating commission to throw the governor a bone on at least a circuit court. Pipe dream. Cohen apparently could not resist the temptation to replace Siwak with someone of her own ideological mold.
Cohen has once again submitted a list of three nominees that Governor Blunt should deem unacceptable. At least two of the nominees have been identified as Democrat donors, and it is reasonable to believe the third has ties to Cohen and the rest of the commission. As has been proven time and time again, the Missouri Plan has been reduced to a political tool for liberals to stack the court with activist judges who will rubber stamp their radical agenda. Governor Blunt should reject the panel and force Cohen and her commissioner-friends to live with their eventual appointment. No need to continue this parlor game where everyone pretends the Governor — who, unlike the commissioners, is elected by all Missourians — has real input in the judicial selection process.
Judge Cohen should apologize to Missourians for making the Missouri Plan a system of political patronage. But she will not. And. of she’s lucky, the drumbeat to get rid of the Missouri Plan will grow louder and louder. If she’s not lucky, she will be targeted in her retention election.
0 responses so far ↓
1 Jeff // May 7, 2008 at 4:26 pm
What an absolutely ridiculous article. Many states already are going to the Missouri Plan as the fairest method of choosing judges yet here we discuss scrapping it to give more power to another branch of the government–the governor. That effort was already defeated in the Republican controlled legislature. Now you write this piece criticizing Judge Cohen and you don’t even name the 3 individuals submitted to the governor. Further you blame Judge Cohen for the selections when she is only one member of the commission. Your comment that 2 of the nominees have donated to Democrats is laughable. So what? Have they also donated to Republicans? Do you know one way or the other? If they at one point donated to Democrats does that mean they are inappropriate selections to be circuit judges? Do you have any idea what their judicial philosophies are? Of course not. Your comment that “it is reasonable to believe that the third (nominee) has ties to Cohen and the rest of the commission” is the funniest of all. That statement is based on nothing at all. That statement belies the true intent of your poorly written article: to slander and insult Judge Cohen and to criticize the Missouri Plan. I’m curious, if Jay Nizon wins in November, will you be recommending scrapping the Missouri Plan then? I doubt it.
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