It finally happened.
372 days after President Barack Obama nominated him to serve as a district judge for the US District Court for the State of Nebraska, Robert F. Rossiter Jr. finally got the gig.
This past Monday, the US Senate voted, 90-0, to confirm Rossiter, who's also the newly-elected president of the Nebraska State Bar Association...and the Purdue University and Creighton University grad (he got his doctorate at Creighton) assumed the bench yesterday.
Congratulations to Rossiter...and all the very best to him.
Now it's time for the two dozen other district-judge nominees to get their confirmations.
In fact, it's long been time.
One of the reasons Rossiter's got a new job is US Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE),
who fought like you-know-what to get the Eighth Judicial District a replacement for the now-retired Joseph Bataillon.
On the other side of the coin...Fischer's one of the US senators fighting like you-know-what to prevent Merrick Garland from even having a hearing as Obama's nominee to replace the now-deceased Antonin Scalia.
You know the big Republican rationale: "No president has ever nominated anyone for the US Supreme Court during an election year, and the Senate has never voted to confirm a Supreme Court nominee during an election year. And no Supreme Court justice ever took the oath of office in an election year."
That's the same line Fischer gave me and so many other Nebraskans when she received emails that pleaded for a hearing for Garland.
Fischer turned 37 in 1988...an election year. (Guess who she voted for on 11-8-1988.)
1988 was also the year where, 49 days into the year, a 51-year-old Californian named Anthony Kennedy became the newest SCOTUS justice.
How about it, you Senate Republicans?
Isn't it time to give Garland his due?
How much longer does he have to wait?
On Tuesday, 11-6-2012, I arrived at my neighborhood polling place, Omaha's Dundee Presbyterian Church, at 11:20 AM...and cast my ballot.
And as things turned out, I got some of what I wanted. (But then, when you go out and vote, chances are you're not going to get everything you want.)
John Ewing (my choice for US Representative from this district) didn't win...and that means former Omaha City Council member Lee Terry Jr. will be back in Washington, DC, for his eighth term in the US House.
Bob Kerrey won't be back in the nation's capital. Instead, State Sen. Deb Fischer gets to supersize her gig...and becomes one of a record twenty women who'll take the oath of office the first week of 2013 as US Senators.
But I was happy about The Big One.
Barack Obama getting a second term of office in the White House means- as far as I'm concerned- that America's got a real chance to really get back on its feet.
Over sixty million people just got through telling this country's government that, among other things, for a recovery to just plain take off, the nation's 300,000 wealthiest citizens have absolutely GOT to pay their fair share (or else they're going to continue to be labeled as traitors!).
Those voters also said: "Look, Republicans, the Affordable Care Act of 2010 is the law of the land. And if you don't like the law the way it is...don't repeal it! Strengthen it, okay?"
I'm excited about the possibilities ahead. (Maybe you are, too.)
And whether or not the people you preferred to win won their seats (or got reelected), it's long been time for all sides to get together and find common ground and think about We the People and move this country forward.
Thanks for reading this blog!
