The more things change...

...the more likely it is there will be yet another demonstration of cronyism. El Presidente has another Circuit Court appointment available to him (the 5th, New Orleans), and has offered up one Michael Wallace for evaluation. Mr. Wallace may be unique in history as the only prospective appointment to receive a unanimous "Not Qualified" from his peers at the ABA (American Bar Association). From http://www.abanet.org/scfedjud/statements/wallace.pdf:

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
My name is Stephen L. Tober. I am a practicing lawyer in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, and I have the privilege of chairing the American Bar Association's Standing
Committee on Federal Judiciary. I am submitting this written statement for the hearing
record to present the Standing Committee’s peer review evaluation of the nomination of
Michael B. Wallace to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for Fifth Circuit.
...
After careful investigation and consideration of his professional qualifications, it
is the unanimous opinion of the Standing Committee that the nominee is “Not Qualified"
for the appointment.

And the partisan outrage to go along with that. http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=22499 :

“The president has a knack for nominating unqualified partisans to the federal bench, but this nomination is a new low,” added Ralph G. Neas, president of People For the American Way. “If the president seriously wanted a judge who would ‘interpret the law, not try to make law from the bench,’ he would have dismissed Wallace out of hand. Wallace is a far right judicial activist in waiting.”

Some Google-Fu turned up this response from the other side of the political ideology coin, http://www.committeeforjustice.org/contents/news/spotlight/wallacetalkingpoints.pdf . I'm not going to pull any quotes from it because in scanning through it I didn't run across anything that was supporting Mr. Wallace's nomination; it's 7 pages attacking the credibility of the ABA (you know - if you don't like the message, shoot the messenger).

Maybe this lifetime appointment thing is a mistake and instead they should just draw names out of a hat for mandatory periodic bench sitting for any position in a court lower than the SCOTUS.