A black lawmaker takes up for federal judicial nominees caught in Democratic crossfire | Political Insider blog

A tight-lipped Mike Boggs made the rounds at the state Capitol on Thursday, trying hard not to say anything that would get him noticed.

Boggs is sits on the state Court of Appeals, but is also one of four who have been nominated for federal judgeships in Georgia’s Northern District by the White House. A hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee is imminent.

Shortly after lunch in the cafeteria near his judicial offices, Boggs brushed by state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta. They shook hands in the cold. And this is where things got interesting.

Brooks, who is African-American, is known for two accomplishments during his 34-year career at the Capitol. His name was on a lawsuit in the late 1980s demanding more African-Americans be appointed to state judicial posts. Brooks was also the lead advocate for pulling down the segregation-era state flag and its St. Andrew’s cross.

After Boggs had left the scene, Brooks told me he’d had a longer conversation with the judicial nominee last week, after a Martin Luther King Day ceremony in the Capitol. Brooks agrees with his friends in Congress, Scott and Lewis, that the federal bench in Georgia needs more black judges. Said Brooks:

“There should be no package recommending appointments to President Obama out of Georgia that’s less than 30 percent African-American. That package ought to reflect the demographic diversity of Georgia.

“But here’s where I disagree with my friends. We need President Obama and Attorney General [Eric] Holder to agree on diversity in the package. But we don’t need to trash the nominees in the package – no matter who they are.”

Brooks then referenced that long talk he had with Boggs:

“I said, Mike, you’re my friend. I said, you might have voted the opposite way on the flag than I did. But your voting record on the flag is identical to DuBose Porter’s record. And he’s the chair of the Democratic party of Georgia….

“The flag was not a defining litmus test for me. I said, ‘Mike, you’re my friend. I’m not going to be critical of you based on your voting record. And I’m not going to be a part of anything to block your confirmation.’

Brooks also took up for Cohen, a litigating partner at the influential firm of Troutman Sanders:

“He took a job for Thurbert Baker to defend the voter ID law. [An African-American and a Democrat,] Thurbert Baker was the attorney general. Not Mark Cohen. But what people fail to realize is, Mark Cohen went to the University of Georgia at the request of president Michael Adams, and defended the University of Georgia’s affirmative action plan. Michael Adams hired him to defend the UGA program on affirmative action, because Thurbert Baker wouldn’t. Thurbert would not.”