Projo Politics Blog

President Bush last week nominated two Rhode Islanders — William E. Smith and Lincoln D. Almond — to seats on the federal bench. But it probably wouldn’t be prudent for either Smith or Almond to get measured for black robes yet.

That is the word from Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who heads the committee that has jurisdiction over confirmation of federal jurists.

Leahy was in Rhode Island Friday to attend a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, at the East Greenwich home of Democratic activists Mark and Susan Weiner.

In an interview before the fundraiser, Leahy scored Mr. Bush for failing to consult with Rhode Island’s two U.S. senators — Democrats Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse — about the nominations.

“You wonder how serious they [the White House] are,” said Leahy. “Are they playing politics?”

Smith, of East Greenwich, who is currently a U.S. District Court judge, has been nominated by Mr. Bush for the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals to succeed Judge Bruce M. Selya. Selya left full-time bench duty in December 2006, assuming senior status.

Almond, son of former Gov. Lincoln C. Almond, the former Republican governor, is currently a federal magistrate who, like Smith, once worked at the prestigious Providence law firm of Edwards & Angell. (Reed and Whitehouse also both worked at the firm.)

Leahy said neither nomination will move without the consent of both Whitehouse and Reed. The two have given the Almond and Smith nominations noncommittal responses.

One Republican both Reed and Whitehouse had agreed on for the circuit bench opening was Providence lawyer Robert Flanders, a former Rhode Island Supreme Court justice, who was recommended by former GOP Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee.

---