Sarah Palin Forced to Appoint Pro-Choice Judge

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has risked running afoul of a right-wing pressure group by appointing a pro-choice judge to the Alaska Supreme Court. The rub here is that the Alaska Constitution only allows her to choose from nominees presented to her by an independent committee, who in this case were both pro-choice. From The Washington Times:

Members of the Alaska Family Council (AFC), a nonprofit devoted to advancing socially conservative causes, encouraged Mrs. Palin to appoint Mr. Smith, and more than 100 people sent letters to the governor's office urging her to do so.

But Mrs. Palin ultimately chose Judge Christen and said "I have every confidence that Judge Christen has the experience, intellect, wisdom and character to be an outstanding Supreme Court Justice."

The nominee that she didn't choose, Eric Smith, is an environmental lawyer who is also pro-choice. In this case, it seems the Alaska Family Council considered Smith to be the lesser of two evils.

There's more to this story than meets the eye. I'm going to give Palin the big thumbs up for this move, and I'm going to explain why she made this pick on March 4, yet it is front page news today.

Eric Smith is an advocate for the listing, as endangered, of Beluga whales in Alaska's Cook Inlet. I'm pretty familiar with this, as I did a story about Palin's opposition to it in January. I disagreed with her position, and still do. I give her the thumbs up because she resisted political pressure from a special interest group in favor of the economic interests of her state. Like her or not, she did her job here at considerable political risk.

So, why is this headline news almost 2 weeks later? HuffPo is pumping this story with a link to the conservative Washington Times. The HuffPo headline is "Palin, Forced Into A Corner, Names Pro-Choicer To Alaska Supreme Court," which I read as almost a taunt, meant to give liberals a chuckle. The Washington Times story that they link to has the headline "State law gives Palin no choice but pro-choice." They point a white-hot spotlight on their purpose with this bit of reporting:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had to make a tough choice in filling a vacant slot on her state's Supreme Court: Appoint a woman who once served on the board of Planned Parenthood, or risk giving an environmentalist lawyer, also pro-choice on abortion, the chance to become an activist judge.

This is a perfect storm of liberals wanting to humiliate Palin, and conservatives wanting to rehabilitate her with conservatives. The last thing Palin wants is for people to think she's reaching out to the pro-choice crowd. Unfortunately, the Times is unlikely to reach much of its intended audience with a link from HuffPo.

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