Federal district court nominee Louis Butler of Wisconsin is the latest GOP litmus test for the Obama administration.

Here’s the lede to the Wall Street Journal editorial headlined “The White House Butler”:

As consolation prizes go, Louis Butler can’t complain. After being twice rejected by Wisconsin voters for a place on the state Supreme Court, the former judge has instead been nominated by President Obama to a lifetime seat on the federal district court. If he is confirmed, Wisconsin voters will have years to contend with the decisions of a judge they made clear they would rather live without.

And here’s the lede to the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel op-ed headlined “Butler critics don’t know him”:

Anyone who has spent any amount of time with Louis Butler knows that he is a man of upstanding character. He is meticulous about gathering relevant facts and thoughtful in respect to considering opposing views. I have personally encountered this thoughtfulness on more than one occasion. Often – at a community meeting, for example – he has demonstrated the ability to take on a boisterous group of people with an uninformed viewpoint and respectfully help them understand the reality of the issue at hand.

Discuss among yourselves . . .

Meanwhile, there was the entirely predictable racial backlash over the attacks on Butler, who is black. From Journal Sentinel political reporter Patrick Marley’s piece headlined “Racism alleged in Wall Street Journal editorial on Butler”:

A state senator, a former state Supreme Court justice and a Wisconsin lawyer accused The Wall Street Journal of racism Thursday for referring to an African-American judicial nominee as “the White House Butler.”

God forbid there’s ever a discussion based on what politicians like to call “true facts” – as opposed to the bogus facts that currently constitute political discourse.

Discuss among yourselves . . .