Jeb Bush distances himself from brother, father on judicial nominations

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has tried to put some distance between himself and his famous family’s history of judicial nominations, saying he would look only at potential picks who have a “proven record” rather than bowing to political considerations.

He said past presidents — whom he didn’t name, but the past two Republicans in the White House were his father and his brother — have picked people “that don’t have a proven record” because they’ve been too worried about facing an increasingly bloody Senate confirmation process.

“They wander, and you go, ‘How could that be?’” Mr. Bush said at a town hall meeting this month in Keene, New Hampshire.

“Because we’re in this partisan environment now where every one of these appointees, it’ll be a big huge fight, and so, I believe we need to have people of experience, of a proven record, a consistent judicial philosophy that you know because they’ve done it over and over and over again, and then you got to fight like hell to make sure they get passed, and that’s my pledge,” the former governor said.

Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director at the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative legal advocacy group, said Mr. Bush’s sentiment is “exactly right, in my opinion.”

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