As I understand it,* the current ABA president, left-winger Michael Greco, appointed seven of the fifteen members of the ABA committee in August 2005: Tober (here, here, and here), Liebenberg, Askew, Hansen, Roseborough, Tucker, and Payton (here and here). Some of Greco’s picks are in the realm of the ludicrous, and it’s difficult to see how any of his picks (much less the entire package) is defensible—if, that is, Greco were seriously interested in a committee that was well qualified to evaluate the qualifications of judicial nominees and that would be, and be perceived to be, objective and nonpartisan. Five of Greco’s picks (all but Tober and Hansen) have a public record of strongly partisan ideological attachments. Three (Hansen, Tucker, and Payton) have very little or no experience that bears on their circuit assignment. And Tober, the committee chair, appears to lack the intellect, temperament, and integrity needed for his role
Six of Greco’s seven appointees are liberal Democrats (if not further left). His one evident Republican appointee, Hansen, appears to have been selected primarily because Greco figured that he could easily be rolled.
* The ABA’s website provides remarkably little information on the members of the Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary: only the names and cities of the current members. No bios or even law-firm affiliations, no information on which ABA president appointed them and when, nothing on their terms of office. On making an inquiry of the ABA, I did receive some information, and I have an inquiry pending for more.