Reed

You couldn’t ask for brighter or harder working senators than Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed. So I find all the more disappointing their virtually hands-off attitude toward President Bush’s nomination of Lincoln D. Almond to be a U.S. District Court judge.

Almond, 44-year-old son of former Republican Gov. Lincoln C. Almond, is a District Court magistrate judge.

I’ve run into him often over the years, but usually in just a hi/how are you kind of way, and I do not assert that the Senate should necessarily confirm him.

But I am impressed to hear District Court Judge Ernest Torres say he’s done an “excellent” job in his current role. A magistrate’s duties include handling arraignments and other pretrial matters in criminal cases and overseeing settlement proceedings in civil cases.

Torres, who has taken senior status and cut back on the number of new cases he hears, says of Almond, “He’s very conscientious. He’s very timely in turning out the work. He writes well. He’s done a wonderful job for us.”

I’m also impressed that John Tarantino, a veteran federal court lawyer, says of Almond, “He’s very hard-working. He’s diligent. He takes his job seriously, and all of my experience with him has been positive.”

So I believe Almond deserves a hearing on the merits and that if he appears qualified, should be confirmed. If he’s not qualified, reject him. What I do not believe is that Democrats should simply let the nomination languish in the hopes that a Democrat will be sworn in as president in 2009 and appoint someone else.

Almond deserves better than to be a victim of political game-playing. More importantly, the people of Rhode Island deserve better.

When Mr. Bush named Almond, Whitehouse and Reed issued a peevish statement saying that the president had been aware of the District Court vacancy for almost two years and that his choice of Almond was “one step in a complex and lengthy process.” The senators said, “We will give President Bush’s nominee careful but independent consideration.”

Subsequent comments by the senators have not offered much more in the way of enthusiasm for the nomination or determination to give Almond a decent shake.

Last week I spoke with both senators, who don’t seem to know Almond any better than I do, and found them to be in full dance mode.

They had just addressed a Biltmore Hotel bacon/sausage/egg breakfast of the Federal Bar Association’s Rhode Island chapter. Neither had mentioned Almond.

When I asked Reed if he wants Almond to get a hearing and a vote, he replied, “The process has just begun and he’ll get full consideration.”

Reed added, “It’s a lifetime appointment. Someone could serve there for 20 or 30 years. It should be done carefully and thoroughly, and we’re going to do it carefully and thoroughly.”

When I told the senator he sounded a bit obstructionist, he repeated, “We’re going to do this carefully, thoroughly, thoughtfully, because the position requires it, regardless of the individual who is appointed.”

I said, “You’re upset because the president didn’t call you and say, ‘What do you think of this guy Almond?’ Or, ‘Who do you think I should appoint?’ That’s the problem?”

Reed said, “No. The president has the prerogative to send the name up. He did, and our obligation now is to thoroughly review it. We will.”

Though Whitehouse is only a freshman, he stands to have a more important role than Reed in this situation. Whitehouse is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would hear the nomination and make a recommendation to the full Senate.

Whitehouse says that when he sees the crush of work the committee faces, he’s hard-pressed to say it’s certain the nomination will come up before time runs out. I noted that the Senate has a full year to go before the 2007-2008 session ends. Even so, Whitehouse said he didn’t know if Judiciary would squeeze in an Almond hearing.

I mentioned the statement Whitehouse and Reed issued about the nomination. I said it sounded like the two considered this was a matter beneath them, that they couldn’t be bothered pressing ahead on it because it’s a Republican president etc. and that somehow or other they will dilly dally and that whether the people of Rhode Island get a judge that they need is not something the senators are considering.

“It is a consideration, but it’s also a lifetime appointment, so it’s a serious matter,” Whitehouse responded. “There’s also a well-established process whose details I am not intimately familiar with because I’ve never taken a judge through them before. But clearly we’re only at the very beginning stages of it and I’m not in a position to make assertions one way or the other about ‘he may get a hearing/he may not.’”

I said he sounded as though he was in a snit over the president’s failure to call up and seek input on the nomination.

Whitehouse said, “There is a role for the Senate in judicial appointments.… It is always very helpful, and indeed I believe it is the tradition in the Senate that the senators are consulted when it’s a District Court appointment in their home state.… So the decision by the Bush administration to go ahead with this name is, you know, it’s their own decision. We’re now going to look at it, but clearly you’re not as invested in a name that comes out of the clear blue sky than if they sat down and said, ‘Okay, let’s get a consensus candidate here.’ ”

Incidentally, Whitehouse, who favors abortion rights, said he wants to pin down where Almond stands on the topic. Whitehouse said he is especially interested because Republican Governor Carcieri, who endorses the nomination, is “anti-choice.”

Though Whitehouse believes abortion rights are settled law, he said, “There has been a concerted effort by Republicans to plant judges on the bench who will disavow the settled precedent of Roe vs. Wade, and that puts an obligation on us in the Judiciary Committee to resist that effort.”

The governor’s office refuses to say if Carcieri included Almond on a list of names he recommended for the judgeship, but spokesman Jeff Neal says the governor is “very pleased” by the president’s pick.

Neal also says he does not believe Carcieri knows Almond’s views on abortion.

Almond, “out of respect for the Senate process,” turned down my request for a general interview. Later, I sent him an e-mail outlining the abortion remarks Whitehouse made. Almond declined comment.

People who know Almond portray him as earnest and level-headed.

He’s certainly tall, at 6 feet 9 inches, a full 3 inches taller than his father, yet over the years you may have heard his parents call him Linky or Little Linc.

The former governor, Lincoln Carter Almond, says his wife, Marilyn, wanted to name their son Lincoln too. Fine, but he didn’t want a junior. He says he told Marilyn, “We might as well make him bipartisan, so we named him Lincoln Douglas.”

Marilyn Almond says she and her husband raised their son and daughter, Amy, not to be materialistic. She says young Linc took a substantial pay cut to leave private law practice and assume the magistrate’s job in 2004.

She also notes that her husband, the Lincoln town administrator turned U.S. attorney, was in the public eye. “They always knew if they did something wrong, even if they were with a bunch of kids, they would be the ones on the front page of the paper.… We were pretty tough on them. They didn’t go to rock concerts or anything like that.”

Joe Almond, the candidate’s older cousin and the current Lincoln town administrator, says young Linc’s family life was like something out of the 1950s — strong parents, a stay-at-home mom, fishing and beach outings at the Cape.

“He was a big reader,” Joe remembers. “He was the kind of kid who always had a book in his hand.”

In 1994, Lincoln Almond, running for governor, told me his son was a “worrywart.” Looking back, he says, “I think he was probably more concerned for me.… The family takes it hardest if you lose.… He was very nervous about something happening to me.”

If you’re looking for Magistrate Judge Almond outside of the court building, you might try the Ryan Center at the University of Rhode Island. He, his parents and his wife, the former Lynn Altieri, are URI alums and basketball fans.

The former governor says that every so often young Linc, who played center in high school, will yell at the referee. “He likes to boo on occasion when he feels there’s a bad call.”

At the URI games you might also spot Linc and Lynn’s three sons, ages 12, 13 and 15.

The family lives in Kingston, and the senior Almonds have been thinking of relocating there too.

I remember times when Governor Almond, whose ancestors came from England, delighted in touting his daughter-in-law’s Italian heritage. And former Lt. Gov. Bernie Jackvony says of the son, “Linc has been introduced to the Italian-American culture. I think he enjoys it quite a bit.” Jackvony says, “If you are from a less gregarious culture, you probably appreciate the warmth and the openness in the celebration the Italians give some of the most commonplace things like food, olive oil and wine.”

Former Republican state chairman John Holmes says young Almond had a very measured reaction to being tapped for the court opening. “He certainly was not dancing on the clouds.” He said Almond was happy and proud but felt, “Now we have to get through the process.”

Holmes says the nominee has “no ego,” an assertion URI president Bob Carothers disputes, but only mildly.

Carothers says of Almond, a former URI Alumni Association president, “Everybody who’s achieved what he’s achieved has some ego. But he’s very self effacing and he’s very quick to give credit to other people.”

Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, who was a political and State House aide to Governor Almond, has known the son in a variety of roles, including Almond’s stint as city solicitor.

Avedisian says, “He’s very much like his father’s approach to getting things done. Very straightforward. Here we are.… This is what we’re doing. This is where we’re going.”

Avedisian especially recalls the 1994 campaign in which Linc and Lynn would immerse themselves in such unglamorous tasks as envelope stuffing and postcard labeling. He says their attitude was, “There’s a goal. Get through the primary and the general election.” Avedisian adds, “Whatever needed to be done is what everyone did.”

He says Almond, who went to law school at the University of Connecticut, brought the same methodical attitude to his legal work: sift through the material, set up a time frame, analyze what has to happen, and then, “Boom!”

And here’s something else to ponder. Avedisian reports, “Senior Linc always used to say his son could understand both sides of every debate because they named him Lincoln Douglas.”

Well, I can see how that would be a useful gift for a judge to have.

M. Charles Bakst is The Journal’s political columnist.

mbakst@projo.com