Back in December, we wondered out loud if Charlie Crist's love of diversity would leave the Supreme Court with a more balanced ideological outlook. That seems to be pretty much what happened.
Last year, the Governor found himself in the unprecedented situation of picking four Supreme Court justices within a span of less than a year. He first replaced two bonafide, Bush-appointed conservatives with two new bonafide conservatives. No big surprise there. Then in January he nominated Jorge Labarga, a former Republican Cuban-American. Labarga didn't please the conservative base but Charlie didn't seem to notice or care that much as today he named Judge James Perry as his final pick.
Perry will become the second African-American to serve on the current bench, and was supported by Planned Parenthood and the NAACP. The NRA and Social Conservatives lined up behind another candidate, Alan Lawson. But Charlie seemed intent on further diversifying the racial makeup of the bench, though it could also be seen as another statement by Crist that he's no slave to the right wing base of his party.
Predictably, the usual right wing blogs are up in arms.
