Free In Idaho!

I gotta get one of these!  (hat tip to Barking Moonbat Early Warning System)

A key concept for conservatives is the idea that equality has no place for quotas and that equal opportunity cannot coexist with set asides… 

Here is Dan Popkey’s opening in his piece in the Statesman today

Idaho has a chance to turn back the clock and make the Supreme Court an institution of white males — just like the bad old days.
Gov. Butch Otter will soon chose among four white men nominated to succeed Chief Justice Gerald Schroeder. That’s in part because of 19 applicants for the first of two vacancies, only two were women and not one was a minority.

The idea that there is something inherently BAD in a court made up of white males is one of those ideas with about as much intellectual honesty and weight as the idea that a Christmas tree in a public building is going to send us reeling into some sort of Taliban like theocracy.  Enough already!  Get out of the Sixties!  What is this fascination with quotas so many people seem to have?

In 1981, President Reagan appointed the first woman to the U.S. Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Connor. In addition to her distinguished tenure on the court, she was an inspiration to women who are projected to make up 40 percent of all U.S. lawyers by 2010.

O’Connor understood why the first woman mattered. “For both men and women the first step in getting power is to become visible to others, and then to put on an impressive show,” she said in 1991. “As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we’ll all be better off for it.”

Ah, just as I thought… it isn’t about finding the best person from among those who apply, it’s about POWER.  Well, let’s see, have the “barriers” fallen yet, here in 2007?  Hillary, what do you think?  Any opportunities for a woman in 2007?  Condi, what’s your thought here? Nancy Pelosi, I’d like to know if you think women have any visibility today?  Ms Gregoire, how about you?  Yeah, just what I thought… America has no place for women in public life.

So Dan, can you give us a little more info here?

Sadly, Gutierrez’s colleague on the Court of Appeals, Karen Lansing, told me she will take a pass. Why? First, she likes her job. Second, she’s reluctant to face an election challenge in May when voters get their chance to affirm the governor’s appointment or elect another candidate. Lansing has twice been elected, without opposition, because judges on the Court of Appeals haven’t yet attracted challengers. Women on the Supreme Court, however, have faced the only challenges to incumbent justices since 1970: Trout once and former Justice Cathy Silak twice.

“It doesn’t do much good for balance on the court for a woman to get appointed for a year,” said Lansing. “So, the looming election kind of overshadows things.” {emphasis mine}

Ah, it’s about POLITICS too.  “Can I win?  Oh, I don’t know, I might not be the best candidate and they might not like me and they might challenge me in the election…” Guess what Dan?  If they think that way, we don’t want them on the court!  Pretty simple concept.  If you’re the best, then get out there and tell me and my fellow Idahoans why.  There are far more folks in Idaho who will vote for the best PERSON, than there are who will not vote for someone just because they are a woman, or Black, or Hispanic.  Give us some credit. If they are too hesitant to compete for it, or if they like their present jobs enough not to apply, let it go!  If there are no qualified women applying, don’t make it about “the bad old days” and “white men”.  If 40% of lawyers are women, yet they aren’t making it up to the high courts, it is not because evil white men are holding them down.  That dog don’t hunt anymore. Put it down Dan.