Under heavy pressure, Crist names right wing ideologue to FL Supreme Court.

[seafan]

So very discouraging for the state of Florida.

Prying the grip of Jeb Bush, his operatives and his religious right zealots off of our state government will be a long, protracted battle.

Charlie Crist is a very willing, vacuous puppet.



Canady chosen for high court

BY MARY ELLEN KLAS
August 29, 2008

TALLAHASSEE --
Gov. Charlie Crist appointed Lakeland judge and former congressman Charles T. Canady to replace retiring Justice Raoul Cantero on the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday, bringing to the bench an appointee with more partisan political experience than any justice in decades.
Canady, 54, a Republican who served in Congress and the Florida House of Representatives for a total of 16 years, was appointed to the 2nd District Court of Appeal by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2002 after serving for a year as Bush's general counsel.

Canady rose to prominence in Washington in 1994, after Republican Newt Gingrich orchestrated the Republican control of Congress and named Canady the chairman of the House Constitution Subcommittee.
As one of the leading members of the Judiciary Committee, Canady helped shepherd legislation sought by the conservative majority on issues such as affirmative action, abortion, school vouchers and prayer in schools.

''He is the kind of man that certainly will serve the people of Florida well,'' Crist said at a news conference outside the Governor's Mansion on Thursday. ``He is kind; he is compassionate; he is fair; he is brilliant and he'll do great.''

.....

Canady's appointment was hailed by Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican who served with Canady in Congress and in 1999 was one of the floor managers with him in the failed attempt to impeach then-President Bill Clinton.

But it was blasted by Planned Parenthood of Florida Executive Director Adrienne Kimmell who called the decision ``a crushing blow to the health and safety of Florida women.''

A graduate of Yale Law School, Canady authored the partial-birth abortion ban that passed Congress, pushed for legislation to end preferential treatment by race in college admissions, sponsored legislation to establish school vouchers programs, worked to allow federal aid to schools only if they allowed voluntary school prayer and sponsored a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling holding flag-burning to be a form of protected speech under the First Amendment.

DEFENDED VOUCHERS

While working for Bush, Canady defended Bush's school voucher program, which gave tuition vouchers to children from failing public schools to attend private schools at taxpayer expense. The Supreme Court ruled 5-2 in 2006 that the program was unconstitutional.

''He's an admitted doctrinaire conservative right-winger and he makes no apologies for it,'' said Dexter Douglass, a Tallahassee lawyer and one-time general counsel to former Gov. Lawton Chiles.

.....

Crist was heavily lobbied to pick Canady by members of the Christian right and former Bush staffers.

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[monmouth]

1. I think Crist is also calling off his engagement..LOL...n/t

[lynettebro440]

2. What a surprise

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

3. we, meaning the progressive side of things, need to figure out a way

to connect judicial choices like this to the average persons everyday life. So he is a right-winger who wants to destroy the public schools, probably a free marketer who wants labor to go to the cheapest bidder. Maybe an ulter religious fanatic who truly believes that society functions better without a middle class.