Accountability Now

by dday

Accountability is back in Washngton, as today the House impeached a federal judge. At long last, one of the legal architects of the Bush torture regime, the man who allowed the CIA to waterboard and provided the twisted legal rationale, the m- what, it was the other one?

The House on Friday impeached a federal judge imprisoned for lying about sexual assaults of two women in the first such vote since impeaching former President Bill Clinton a decade ago.

The impeachment of U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent of Texas sets up a trial in the Senate. Kent is the first federal judge impeached in 20 years.

It’s never the sex, it’s the lying.

This guy’s actually convicted and in prison serving a 33-month sentence, and he won’t resign so he can draw his $174,000 a year salary. I’m not saying it’s not warranted. Hey, maybe the House can exercise this whole accountability and oversight muscle. Baby steps.

…from a reader:

I am a hard core D and a plaintiff’s lawyer, but Kent was corrupt. He was in the pocket of a couple local plaintiff lawyers, so much that three years ago or so, the 5th Cir ordered that all of Kent’s cases in which Richard Melancon had appeared as counsel (and there were, necessarily, hundreds) be reassigned to different judges–a virtually unprecedented step. So this was a classic Al Capone situation–they got him for the sexual harassment, but his real crime was his longstanding abuse of his office.

My side “benefited” from his bias, but it was and is embarrassing as hell. Just because the insurance industry is open and obvious about its corruption does not mean we can do the same.

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