Administration's horrible record on judges, part 214

Robert Kuttner's look at the sad history of the Obama administration's record on judicial appointments is perhaps even more depressing than these articles usually are. The White House incompetence is impressive.

I think the judicial nominations is one episode of the bigger story of  is the Obama administration doing what it thinks it needs to do right now, and neglecting the future. It's not good. I wrote about this last year in the context of the White House adopting right-wing economic messaging. They thought that's what the needed to do for the short term (I think that was incorrect), but the bigger problem was the long term damage they do to the case for progressive governance. I'd feel at least a bit better about the trade-off if it were clear that it is in fact a trade-off.

The judicial appointments problem, which is mostly a problem in the longer term (screw over future generations), is also one in the shorter term. That is, the Administration's failure to move the DC circuit somewhat left, for example, will likely hurt some of the Administration's own accomplishments, when the conservative judges at the court block agency rules. Not good.