L.A Times to Obama: Renominate Keisler

The L.A. Times has joined the groundswell in urging Obama to renominate some of Bush's judicial nominees including Peter Keisler.  

Finally, Obama should follow the advice of Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and renominate three Bush nominees whose appointments have languished in the Senate but who have been highly rated by the ABA and received bipartisan support. Specter notes that there is a precedent: Bush renominated -- and the Senate confirmed -- one of Clinton's unsuccessful nominees to a federal appeals court.

One of the three candidates mentioned by Specter, former Assistant Atty. Gen. Peter Keisler, would take the seat formerly occupied by Roberts on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Keisler was praised by the Justice Department's inspector general for opposing the Bush administration's politicization of hiring in the department. Renominating Keisler could signal the beginning of a long overdue truce in the judge wars.

We have covered this topic including Bush's bipartisanship here.  It remains to be seen if Obama will stick to his bipartisan rhetoric in appointing judicial nominees.