Beuerman Miller Fitzgerald

This is more of a rant than a blog-something I swore I'd never do.

But as a voter, and as a media professional, I can't help but be disappointed and angry about the campaign conduct of most of the recent candidates for the various judicial seats in the City of New Orleans. Campaigning for offices such as Civil District Court without an ounce of civility is the absolute height of hypocrisy. Sitting judges as cartoon characters? Seriously? Unseemly, untrue and totally contrived allegations about failure to pay child support (that are so far off base that a local court orders them pulled off the air in record time)? Really? And you want to be a judge?

While the political consultants can be somewhat excused for slinging such mud (taht's what they after all) there is no excuse for someone seeking a judgeship to stoop so low. What could possibly qualify someone with no sense of propriety or dignity to feel even remotely qualified to judge anyone else?

Surely being a judge is more about you than about your opponent. After all, once you win, the only thing relevant is your behavior and demeanor, not your former opponent's.

If there's ever an argument in favor of an appointed judiciary, those candidates who spent millions of dollars to tear each other (and their families) apart have become the new poster children for a comprehensive change in how we put people on the bench. Such behavior is a sad commentary on the integrity of far too many of the great legal minds who seek to judge the rest of us in court.