Bredesen has already passed test
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With President Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be the next Supreme Court Justice, the partisan barbs are flying in both directions. Both Democrats and Republicans were at each other’s throats the moment he was announced, without taking a breath to assess the nominee fairly.
Phil Bredesen, Tennessee’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, who has a track record of appointing judges from both sides of the aisle, called for reason. However, the question still remains: how would Bredesen handle the high court confirmation process?
“In the Senate, I’ll vote for or against a nominee based solely on whether I believe them to be highly qualified and ethical – not based on partisan politics,” Bredesen said recently. “Looking ahead, the President’s Supreme Court nominee deserves a fair and timely confirmation hearing.”
I believe former governor Bredesen because I know his record on ethics. In 2005, he appointed me as co-chair of the Governor’s Citizen Advisory Group on Ethics, charged with revising state ethics laws. Bredesen knew Tennesseans should be able to trust their leaders to act ethically, and judicial nominees are no different.
As governor, Bredesen made nonpartisan judicial appointments. He set political party aside and appointed state judges whom he believed would do the best job. Bredesen’s steady non-partisanship is part of what made him a widely respected governor on both sides of the aisle.
In the Senate, his decisions on how to vote for judicial nominees – chosen by the current President or any other – would never be based on political party or affiliation. For Bredesen, those moments are too important to be guided by anything but how qualified the nominee is.
Consider the record. Among Bredesen’s nonpartisan appointments as governor was State Supreme Court Justice William C. Koch Jr. In 2007, he selected Koch, a Republican and legal counsel to former Republican Gov. Lamar Alexander, to serve on the state’s highest court.
In 2005, Bredesen appointed Jeffrey Bivins to the bench of the 21st District Circuit Court after Bivins was not reelected to a Williamson County judgeship. Bredesen “looked past partisan politics and put me back on the bench,” Bivins said. Today, Chief Justice Bivins, a Republican, sits on the Tennessee Supreme Court, appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam.
It is no surprise, then, that Republicans like retired Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice William “Muecke” Barker have praised Bredesen’s approach to judicial nominations. He was recently quoted as saying: “When he (Bredesen) says he’ll appoint somebody based upon who he thinks is the best, he’s telling the truth. He has.”
In the Senate, Bredesen knows what Tennesseans will expect of him, and that, not the direction of either national party, will inform him. I can say with certainty that he holds both the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law as sacred.
Integrity always was his compass in making decisions as governor, and it will be in the U.S. Senate.
Mike Cody was state Attorney General from 1984-1988, U.S. Attorney from 1977-1981, and a member of Memphis City Council from 1975-1977.
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