His name is Gustavus Adolphus Puryear (no, I'm not kidding)!He has almost no courtroom experience. In fact, in his whole life he has tried the grand total of two cases. According to an excellent article by Stephanie Mencimer at Mother Jones, "The last time he litigated a case in federal court was more than a decade ago."
What he does have is experience as a Republican hack. He was on Cheney's 2000 debate-preparation team and returned to Cheney's side in 2004 to help the shot-gunner get ready to debate John Edwards.
In the mid-90s, Puryear was counsel to the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. At the time, the committee was investigating the Clintons regarding their fund-raising. Fred Thompson, erstwhile 2008 presidential candidate, was the Chairman.
While Puryear's courtroom experience is pretty much non-existent, he has been involved with the criminal justice system. For the past seven years, he's been the general counsel for the Corrections Corporation of America, a Tennessee company. He's made millions of buckaroos.
CCA gets sued on a regular basis. Puryear is in charge of those in charge of defending CCA against inmate litigation. CCA has lost on a few occasions; in 2000, in South Carolina, the company got slapped with a $3 million fine for abusing juvenile offenders.
According to one judicial watch organization, Puryear has a reputation for not liking civil lawsuits, especially those filed by felons.
Would you appoint this man to be a federal trial court judge? Would you apppoint this man to be a federal trial court judge for the Middle District of Tennessee?
Probably not. Would the Bush administration appoint this man to be a federal trial court judge for the Middle District of Tennessee? You bet your ass!
Why? Well, sheesh, he's done lot's of good work for the Republican Party. He belongs to the really fancy, discriminating Belle Meade Country Club and he's the director of the Antiques & Garden Show of Nashville. No, he probably couldn't tell you what the inside of a courtroom looks like, but, hey, so what?
Heck, another year or so of really good work as a federal trial court judge and he'll be ready to head to the Supremes. He can sit on the opposite end of the bench from Clarence Thomas.
1 comment:
The sad thing is that the public cannot do much to get rid of such hacks, once appointed. The overwhelming liberal press, that controls all news and media, doesn’t report these things, for some mysterious reason. One would think that the Liberal press would be glad to expose such things. What could be their reason? It is a puzzlement as has been said by far wiser people than I.
Bob Poris
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