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Harry Reid to ABA: "Get A New Life."

Methinks Senator Harry needs to get on with...you know....passing something and/or growing a pair:

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., criticized the American Bar Association on Thursday, saying it should "get a new life" in how it rates prospective federal judges, after one of his choices got a mixed review.

In remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Reid said the bar association's ratings board puts too much weight on whether judicial nominees have prior bench experience and overlooks "real world" qualifications.

Reid expanded his criticism to include the Supreme Court, whose makeup, he said, consists of "people who have never seen the outside world."

"I have asked President (Barack) Obama, 'Let's get somebody on the court that has not been a judge.' They need to do more than thinking of themselves as these people who walk around in these robes in these fancy chambers."

Reid was set off by the ABA's rating of Las Vegas attorney Gloria Navarro, who also appeared before the Senate committee as his choice and Obama's nominee to become a U.S. district judge in Nevada.

According to the association's 15-member Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, a "substantial majority," consisting of 10 to 13 members, rated Navarro "qualified," while a minority rated her "not qualified."

You certainly do not need to have been a judge in order to become a judge.

Further, the ABA has grown increasingly irrelevant and insular in my view for a number of reasons that go beyond the topic of this post.

Still, regardless of the specifics of Ms. Navarro, bashing judges for being judges ("walking around in robes in fancy chambers") is just stupid and counterproductive.

Plus, we reserve that kind of stuff for Wednesdays.

Full post as published by South Florida Lawyers on February 16, 2010 (boomark / email).