Rebekah Poston and Alvin Davis: Frank Jimenez Was A Good Worker.

I mean why all the contretemps, what more do you need:

Rebekah Poston, Jimenez's former boss at the law firm Steel Hector Davis in Miami, said that based on the work he did for her, Jimenez would be an excellent choice for the Supreme Court. ''He was a superb writer, superb researcher and his ethics were beyond reproach,'' she said. ``He was able to look at both sides of issues.''

Rebekah, that's nice and all, but stop reading old associate review files.

Alvin Davis has more:

Alvin Davis, also formerly of Steel Hector Davis, agreed. ''He has strong views, which I think people should have, but he does not let those views interfere with what he is called upon to do,'' he said. ``We disagreed politically on just about everything. We had vigorous political debates, and it did not interfere with his work for me one bit.''

Davis continued:

"For example, Frank thought there was no way I should wear a burnt orange shirt with a black vest to be photographed by the DBR. I disagreed and said it was the perfect look for me. Anyway, we fought over this for hours but eventually Frank said he understood my position and would defer to my sartorial tastes. Personally, I think that shows excellent judgment."

Meanwhile, some "critics" (read: SORE LOSERS) are apparently concerned about some ancient concept dreamed up by old Englishmen called "the process." This is a corker of a story by Jordana Mishory:

The commission destroyed public confidence in the JNC, critics said.

“We are a constitutional body created precisely, precisely, to restrain the governor’s power of appointment,” said JNC member Arturo Alvarez during the Wednesday night meeting.

“I believe that it is extremely important that we avoid even the appearance of impropriety or that choices are somehow influenced by the governor’s wishes regardless of the motivation of the governor.”

Alvarez, who sources say was an outspoken opponent of Jimenez, was in the minority of JNC members who advocated not sending the governor additional names.

Tony Alfieri, the director of the Center for Ethics and Public Service at the University of Miami, said the process that led to Jimenez’s nomination will have lasting damage on the commission’s credibility.

“Although the JNCs are political bodies and the appointment and selection process is highly politicized, this particular moment demonstrates the high water mark of political interference by the governor’s office,” Alfieri said. “Given this blunt interference by the governor, it is very unlikely that the JNC would be able to rebuild the integrity of the selection process.”

The JNC sent five names to the governor on Dec. 8 out of a batch of 18 candidates to replace retiring Justice Harry Lee Anstead. But, two days later, Crist appointed the lone Hispanic finalist to the 4th District Court of Appeal and called for the JNC to reconvene to provide him with a more diverse list.

Critics contend that sidelining the only Hispanic finalist was the first move in an elaborate, last-ditch effort to get Jimenez nominated using the guise of diversity.

During Wednesday’s contentious meeting, the JNC voted 5-to-4 to consider sending additional names and convened a second closed meeting to deliberate on who to add to the nomination list.

JNC Chairman Robert Hackleman originally intended to have both meetings closed, but after opposition from the Daily Business Review, which contended that such a meeting would violate the state constitution, the panel held two meetings: one open discussion to decide how to respond to the governor and a second to choose any nominees if the commissioners decided to do so.

A minority of the JNC consisting of Miami-area attorneys Alvarez, Candace Duff and Katherine Ezell, and Jacksonville lawyer Howard Coker complained that adding more names to the nomination list could diminish the commission’s credibility and violate its rules.

“If we agree to re-deliberate, nominate someone else and they’re appointed by the governor, the whole world will know that person did not have the support of the majority of the JNC last week,” Alvarez said. “That is grossly unfair to the extraordinarily well-qualified nominees.”

Jimenez was the only person nominated by the deeply divided commission after the Wednesday night meeting.

Jimenez did not return calls for comment by deadline.

A number of commissioners voiced concerns that Crist’s request for new nominees was a move to appoint a specific person. Commissioners said they had been approached by people who felt the selection process had become very political.

“We have an obligation to protect the integrity of the process,” Alvarez said. “People are talking all over this town: ‘Why is that happening? What is taking place? You said only five, how can there be six?’ ” He said it was the JNC’s job to restrict the governor’s appointment power.

Political? Why would anyone suggest that? Well, there is this:

In 1999, the St. Petersburg Times reported Jimenez helped hatch a plan to recruit judicial applicants who were “ideologically compatible” with Bush.

And also this, from the glorious days of that entirely nonpolitical 2000 Florida recount:

Bush officially recused himself on Nov. 8. Before he did, sometime early that morning, probably around 3 a.m., either the governor or “someone speaking to the governor” phoned Clay Roberts, head of the state’s election division, and asked, “How does the recount work?” Roberts recalled Thursday.

Roberts said that was his last contact with Gov. Jeb Bush. But it was not his last contact with Bush’s staff.

Frank Jimenez, an attorney on Jeb Bush’s staff, has phoned Roberts several times since the recount effort began. Jimenez has been on leave since Nov. 8.

Roberts said Jimenez called him Sunday, asking whether he had yet received a written request from the chairman of the Palm Beach County canvassing board for an opinion on whether a hand recount could be conducted if the mistakes on the ballots were caused by voter confusion, not machine malfunction.

Roberts said he told Jimenez that the Florida secretary of state’s legal staff had already begun working on such an opinion after hearing the Palm Beach chairman say on television that he wanted one. But Roberts said he told Jimenez he had not yet received a written request from the chairman for it. Jimenez then told him that “we” were going to request one instead.

It wasn’t until Roberts got a fax from the Republican Party of Florida seeking the opinion that he knew for sure who Jimenez was working for. “When he said he was going to request an opinion, I assumed he was on leave because I knew he couldn’t do it for the governor’s office,” Roberts said.

“He’s called me a couple more times with technical questions: ‘How do absentee ballots work?’ ” he said.

Jimenez did not return a phone call on Thursday.

Sheesh Frank, do you ever pick up your phone?

If you're intensive on all of this, here are few more links:

Frank's Facebook page is here (sorry Arturo, you have to be his friend!).

Jake Tapper has more on Frank's role in the 2000 recount here.

And according to the AP, Crist claims to have something up his sleeve besides satisfying the Bushies and getting ready for 2012:

Crist said he was grateful the commission expanded the pool and that critics "are going to be surprised."

"Those who are making those prejudgments are making prejudgments, and they're premature," Crist said.

"One more thing -- the key word here is 'pre,'" the Governor added.

Oy -- who knows? I guess we better stay tuned.