RE: RE: Judge removed from hearing cases while being investigated for misconduct

The timing of this may be politically motivated, but I'll bet that they found themselves a witch.

Does that make the witch hunt acceptable? Can these guys claim the moral high ground because they waited 15 years and a party switch to go after Badgett? If he was such a jerk, why didn't they go after him when he was a PD or when he worked in the DA's office? The answer is simple: he was a Democrat and Democrats control the legal system in this part of the state. He was a member of the club. There is ample evidence that being a member of the club gets one a free pass for all sorts of objectionable behavior.

The lesson here is that it almost always pays to be nice, especially if you have successfully switched parties and finally won an election as a result. Local politics is too personal of a game to act disrespectful to those you work with and judge on a daily basis.

I would much prefer a judge who is objective and consistent. If doing that makes him a jerk or if he hurts some poor criminal's feelings in the process, tough beans. Get over it. Being nice is wonderful if you're selling cars or painting houses, it's highly overrated in the realm of law enforcement. In any case, all we have to go on is the highly debatable claims of the lawyer who filed the grievance and the bureaucracy, also under the thumb of the political machine, that asked him to recuse himself.

I don't know Mark all that well. He did an incorporation for me a long time ago and I've had some dealings with him while I was still active in the Stokes GOP leadership. I'm not about to go into a lengthy defense of him here. I believe he might be the first Republican judge ever in District 17B. If not, he is one of a very very few. I know the Democrat political machine that makes up the judicial system in this area. I know that the fact that Badgett switched parties was bad enough for them. The fact that he actually sits on the bench is probably unbearable. This has nothing to do with Badgett's qualifications or actions with regard to the judiciary. This is a political smack-down and lynching, nothing more, nothing less.