Frank Jimenez Unlikely To Return Calls From St. Pete Times, Either!

We've already noted Frank's seeming inability to be available for phone calls with journalists who are writing negative stories about him. Well, you can add the St. Pete Times to newspapers that probably won't be getting a call back from Frank anytime soon:

If Gov. Charlie Crist appoints Frank Jimenez to the Florida Supreme Court, he will be selecting the least qualified and most ideological nominee available. Jimenez is a Cuban-American and would add diversity to a court that now lacks a Hispanic justice. But in this case, diversity would be a pretext for stacking the Supreme Court with political conservatives and abandoning its centrist history.

A Jimenez appointment would make a mockery of the state's judicial nomination process, which was initially designed to ensure meritorious and nonpolitical picks for the state's appellate courts. While it was reasonable for Crist to ask the Judicial Nominating Commission for more names to add diversity to the list of candidates, the commission's handling of the request in a contentious Wednesday night telephone conference is legally suspect and politically tainted.

In a series of 5-4 votes, the commission publicly agreed to waive its own rules and add at least one more name to the list of finalists. It is no coincidence that the majority were appointees made directly by Crist or former Gov. Jeb Bush, and that the minority were gubernatorial appointees recommended by the Florida Bar. One guess how the secret ballot to add Jimenez went. This was not a broad search for diversity but a heavy-handed move to add one specific name to the list.

Jimenez is a Bush acolyte whose career has been advanced through one political appointment after another. As the governor's assistant general counsel, he sent an e-mail in which he plotted with Bush to recruit "ideologically compatible" applicants for judgeships by creating shadow regional panels to encourage certain judicial candidacies. That alone illustrates the contempt he has for an independent judiciary.

(h/t flapolitics.com)

Sheesh. Who put coal in the stocking of the St. Pete Times' editorial board? I'm not even quoting all the good stuff due to it being the holidays and all.

Given that Frank is from South Florida, I wonder whether our "paper of record" will weigh in on it. (Note to Miami Herald -- when writing an editorial, try to have it express a point of view).

All I know is if Heat Miser and Snow Miser can get along, there is hope for all of us.

UPDATE:

They write letters, continued:

Politics swayed Jimenez nomination to Judicial Nominating Commission

The Judicial Nominating Commission ''ran afoul of Florida law'' and appeared to bow to political pressure when it nominated Miami lawyer Frank Jimenez for the Florida Supreme Court, a group of high-powered lawyers complained in a strongly worded letter Monday.

Jimenez, a politically connected attorney who is currently the U.S. Navy's general counsel, was nominated for the seat Wednesday after a long and contentious JNC meeting called in response to Gov. Charlie Crist's request for more ''diversity'' in the list of prospective justices. Amid frequent 5-4 votes, the commission suspended its rules at times as some members questioned what they were doing and what Crist's motives were.

''We are very concerned that the integrity of the process with respect to the nomination and selection of justices and judges may be tainted in the eyes of the public,'' said the letter to JNC chairman Robert Hackleman.

17 SIGNATURES

It was signed by 17 attorneys, including former Florida Bar President Kelly Overstreet-Johnson, constitutional expert Wayne Hogan, two former Fifth District Court of Appeal judges and state Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, and his father, José.

The signatories said they would like a delegation of theirs to meet with Hackleman and others to prevent a repeat of Wednesday's meeting, which was held by conference call. They said the JNC's actions ''may very well run afoul of the letter and spirit'' of the law when it changed its rules during the conference call and when it cast voice votes rather than secret ballots.

Hackleman could not be reached for comment Monday. Nor could Jimenez, an attorney in the administrations of both former Gov. Jeb Bush and President George W. Bush.

Wait a minute -- Frank didn't return the phone call?

No way!

EVEN LATER UPDATE:

Thanks to a friend of the blog, you can review the entire letter here.