ALLEGHENY COUNTY Sen. Santorum told 3 to skip bar interviews

The senator said the bar is overstepping its bounds by doing the interviews.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum advised three federal judicial nominees not to appear before the Allegheny County Bar Association for interviews, a newspaper reported.
Santorum told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for Sunday papers that local bar officials should not rate candidates for the federal bench.
"This is a county bar association. This is a federal judicial nomination. We have the [American Bar Association] review the nomination. I am not going to make them part of this process because they are simply one county among many counties that are going to be represented," Santorum said.
Weren't told
County bar officials said they were not told by Santorum's office of his advice and that advising the candidates not to appear violated a decades-long tradition of rating nominees by the bar's judiciary committee.
Attorney General D. Michael Fisher has been nominated to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Pittsburgh attorney Thomas Hardiman and Somerset County Judge Kim R. Gibson have been nominated to the federal bench in Pittsburgh. None appeared at the bar association's June 30 interview.
Fisher said he skipped the meeting on Santorum's advice and said since he was already rated well-qualified by the American Bar Association, a rating by the county would have been superfluous.
Hardiman declined to comment and Gibson did not return a call from the paper.
Santorum said that he had no problem with the Allegheny bar's rating county judge candidates, but that the bar was overstepping its bounds to suggest it had a role in interviewing federal judges.
Important in his eyes
Martin W. Sheerer, a county bar member, said its recommendations are important for the Senate to consider regardless of when the American Bar Association makes its ratings.
U.S. District Judge D. Brooks Smith appeared before the county bar when he was a nominee for the federal bench. Santorum used its "highly recommended" rating of Smith as reason for the Senate to confirm him, though Santorum said he would have advised Smith not to appear had he known Smith was going to.
Smith said the association members were qualified to rate nominees because of their professional dealings.
"The public is free to accept or reject those views. The U.S. Senate is free to accept or reject those views," Smith said.
Rated anyway
The bar association rated the nominees in absentia. Fisher was "recommended," Gibson was "highly recommended" and Hardiman was deemed "not recommended at this time," meaning he may have the potential, but isn't yet ready, in the association's view.