Follow the money. Here are excerpts from the Center for American Progress website.
FORD: A more tragic case is the case of Willie Searcy. A defective seat belt left the teenaged Searcy paralyzed and in need of constant medical care after a car slammed into his Ford pickup. A jury awarded his family, which did not have the financial resources to pay for Searcy’s care, millions of dollars in damages. Ford appealed, taking the case to the Texas Supreme Court. Owen took the case and allowed it to languish for years. When she did get around to writing the opinion, she took issue with a point of law that had not even been raised in the appeal, wrote long, complicated clarifications of a law that was no longer even on the books, “left the family with nothing and ordered a new trial.” Searcy died while awaiting the Owen-ordered new trial. While Willie Searcy’s case moved through the system, Owen accepted over $20,000 from Baker Botts, the law firm which was part of Ford’s defense team.
FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES: Owen has close ties to right-wing Svengali Karl Rove. Rove helped Owen get her first judicial position in 1994, raising nearly a million dollars - $926,000 - for her judicial campaign. In return, he received over a quarter million - $247,000 - in consulting fees from her campaign.
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There is no doubt that Owen is not fit for seat on the Federal Appeals Court, and that’s why the Democrats are so united in their opposition to her appointment. We can only hope that there are at least six moderate Senators who can see through this charade and will not support Frist’s proposed change to the Senate filibuster rules.
If you live in in the following states, please contact your Senators now and let them know you do not support the change to the filibuster rules. If you know people in the following states, send them a link to this post. Here’s the list from Bob Harris’s site, complete with phone numbers.
Lincoln Chafee, Rhode Island
(202) 224-2921Susan Collins, Maine
(202) 224-2523Mike Dewine, Ohio
(202) 224-2315Lindsey Graham, South Carolina
(202) 224-5972Chuck Hagel, Nebraska
(202) 224-4224John McCain, Arizona
(202) 224-2235Lisa Murkowski, Alaska
(202) 224-6665Gordon Smith, Oregon
(202) 224-3753Olympia Snowe, Maine
(202) 224-5344Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania
(202) 224-4254John Sununu, New Hampshire
(202) 224-2841John Warner, Virginia
(202) 224-2023
