Wheat is Governor's Choice for High Court

It's no shocker that Governor Schweitzer picked former senator Mike Wheat to replace Justice John Warner on the Montana Supreme Court. He has a lot of legal experience, he has already run once for statewide office, he is a plaintiff's attorney that will have the backing of the Montana Trial Lawyer's Association, and he has money to self-fund his campaign. Without a doubt, being a former Democratic lawmaker helped him too.

Question: Will this appointment add fuel to the fire the Montana Republican Party started over the Governor and other Democratic executives picking Democratic legislators to fill positions? In this case Wheat is a former lawmaker, but the cronyism accusations may still fly. According to the dictionary, cronyism is "partiality to long-standing friends, especially by appointing them to positions of authority, regardless of their qualifications."

In this case, I don't think anyone can make a case that Wheat is unqualified - in fact, I believe all three selected by the judicial nomination committee had ample backgrounds.

Any thoughts on this? Discuss....

Comments

[Alex B.]

Perhaps I have higher (lower?) standards for cronyism, but I don't really count this. Wheat is plenty qualified to be a Justice. I am still disappointed because he seems unlikely to be a strong voice of reason and practicality on the Court. I doubt that he will be the least reasonable member of the Court, but Warner will still be missed. I certainly didn't expect anything different, but it would have been nice to have someone who was only interested in interpreting the laws as the legislature had written them.

[Tyler]

Why in the hell wasn't Waterman selected by the committee for B.S.'s consideration? He's at least as qualified as Wheat, and clearly, in my opinion, more qualified than Canty or Warren. And he also had significant support from voters in his run against McGrath. It may not have changed the result here, but it would have made the committee look more legit.