Breaking: Full Senate Advances Federal Judge Nomination of Right Wing Blogger Who Joked About ‘F*ggots’

Every Republican Senator Present Said ‘Yes’ to a Man Who Calls Gays ‘Faggots’

The full Senate has just voted to advance the nomination of John K. Bush, a nominee to the federal 6th Circuit Court of Appeals who was forced to defend some of his outrageous far right wing blog posts during his committee nomination hearing. The full Senate late Wednesday morning voted 51-48, along party lines, to close debate on Bush’s nomination. Sen. John MCCain (R-AZ) was absent due to surgery.

The next major step will be a confirmation vote, which appears likely to succeed.

Bush has “joked” about not wanting to appear as a “faggot” while delivering a public speech, and spent years supporting Donald Trump’s offensive birtherism, often by citing an extremist website known as WND.

As NCRM reported last week when the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced his nomination to the full Senate, Bush is married to a woman has helped raise a reported $14 million for the re-election campaign of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Both men happen to be from Kentucky. 

“For nearly a decade,” Quartz reported last month, Bush “contributed regularly to Elephants in the Bluegrass, a political blog run by his wife, under the pen name G. Morris. In posts, he drew a tenuous parallel between Barack Obama and Monica Lewinsky and equated slavery to abortion as two of America’s greatest tragedies.”

27 LGBTQ civil rights groups, led by Lambda Legal, joined together to oppose Bush’s lifetime appointment to the federal bench, along with that of another unqualified anti-gay nominee, Damien Schiff, as HuffPost reported.

“Although neither Mr. Bush nor Mr. Schiff has any judicial experience, their public statements and writings have repeatedly demonstrated not only an extraordinary lack of judgment but also plain contempt for the rights of LGBT Americans, people living with HIV, women, and other vulnerable populations,” reads the letter, which goes into specifics on each count.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have been posting their opposition to Bush via Twitter. A sampling from today:

HRC President Chad Griffin calls both Bush and Schiff “a danger to LGBTQ equality & unfit to sit on the federal bench.” 

Senator Kamala Harris also took to twitter to voice her strong opposition:

During the Committee vote, Senator Al Franken (D-MN) explained just how unqualified Bush is:

You can call your US Senators to oppose the confirmation of John K. Bush to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals: (202) 224-3121.

To comment on this article and other NCRM content, visit our Facebook page.