Just last night I posted about the opinions that Alaska attorneys with direct experience dealing with Attorney General-nominee Wayne Anthony Ross have of WAR’s mediocre legal abilities:
His middling scores on the Alaska Bar Association surveys when he applied for seats on the Alaska Supreme Court and Court of Appeals are not simply statistics, but indicative of the opinion those of his colleagues in the bar who have had direct professional experience with him have for his professional competence, integrity, fairness, judicial temperament, suitability for the position, and overall performance. Obviously candidates for Attorney General are not judged according to the same standards as used by the Alaska Judicial Council — but perhaps they should be.
Today WAR himself offers further proof, in his public statement about the current standoff between Sarah Palin and Democrats in the Alaska State Senate over the appointment of a state senator for Juneau. Shannyn Moore has a good summation of the order of events here: essentially, Palin is attempting to bypass Alaska Statutes in how the replacement for former state senator Kim Elton (who has gone to work for the Obama Administration in the Dept. of the Interior) should be appointed.
This morning, this announcement, as reported by Sean Cockerham in the Anchorage Daily News politics blog:
State Senate Democrats are refusing to vote on the three names that Gov. Sarah Palin forwarded as appointees for the open Senate seat. They obtained a legal opinion this morning saying it is illegal for Palin to submit more than one name.
“There is nothing for us to vote on, there is no appointment,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat. “The governor has taken an unusual course which is outside the law and leaves us no choice but to ignore what she‘s done.”
(The legal opinion is here.)
Wayne Anthony Ross’ response:
“It seems to me the most important thing that can be done by the Senate is not argue with legal or illegal but to appoint somebody to represent Juneau,” said Ross, whose own appointment is up for a confirmation vote by the Legislature tomorrow.
Great. Palin’s Attorney General nominee doesn’t even care about the rule of law.
Not that she does, either.
