Oct 7, 2013 4 min read

This is about three men of accomplishment.

Marco Rubio has quite a compelling personal story.

The junior U.S. Senator from Florida is a son of Cuban immigrants, who has risen to become one of the most powerful men in Washington.

Barack Obama, the son of a single mother, who was raised by his grandparents and yet, against all odds, he’s risen to hold the reigns of the most powerful country on earth.

William Thomas, was born in Uniontown, raised in the crime-ridden Dunlap Creek Village Projects by his widowed mother, and yet, he has risen to become a well-respected judge in Florida’s Miami-Dade Circuit Court.

Three men. Three compelling stories. Three narrow paths to success that have, through perseverance, been opened beyond their wildest childhood dreams.

On Jan. 3, one of those men, President Obama, sought to open William Thomas’ pathways even further. He nominated him to fill a vacant seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Obama must have certainly noted the similarities of Thomas’ biography to his own. Even though he graduated from Harvard and Columbia University, while Thomas had graduated from Washington and Jefferson and Temple University, they both share a hunger for the law.

It’s worth nothing here that Thomas, if confirmed, would become the first openly gay African-American ever to serve as a federal judge. But this isn’t really about his race or his sexual preference. It’s about petty politics — pure and simple.

Which brings me to Marco Rubio, and those petty politics.

Rubio, who effortlessly recites his own biography — whether people want to hear it or not — is ignoring Thomas’. Rubio is using his position on the Senate Judiciary Committee to block the Thomas nomination.

Initially, Rubio recommended that Judge Thomas’ nomination move forward. He’s now changed his mind.

The U.S. Senate is charged with the responsibility of voting on the qualifications of presidential nominees. Rubio is determining the suitability of this particular nominee based on his adherence to the extreme politics of his tea party supporters. There’s no better explanation for his controversial change-of-heart.

That child of immigrants is preventing a child of the projects from fulfilling a goal and a milestone — for reasons that are both troubling and misguided.

It is obvious Rubio, who, by all accounts, has higher political aspirations, is playing to his right-wing base by resisting Obama’s nominee. His stated reason for putting a hold on the Thomas nomination is that he’s found a few court rulings to be “troubling.” There have been a number of reviews of those cases by independent sources and by those prosecutors involved with them that support Thomas’ rulings.

The New York Times has reported that the lead prosecutor and the administrative judge in one of those cases, upon their reviews, believe Thomas acted within the law and fairly. Those reviews don’t matter to Rubio. He is now facing a growing backlash for his stubborn resistance to all-things Obama from a number of circles.

In order for Thomas to get a fair hearing, both of the Senators from the state in which he serves must agree to hold his confirmation hearing. Fortunately, Florida’s other U.S. Senator, Democrat Bill Nelson, agreed to confirm Thomas’ nomination months ago. Therein, I might add, lies a bit of irony.

Nelson became only the second sitting member of Congress to fly in space on Jan. 12, 1986, aboard Space Shuttle Mission STS-61-C. The payload specialist aboard that flight was New Salem’s Bob Cenker, who once lived only a few miles away from the Dunlap Creek Projects, where Judge William Thomas was raised. But Nelson’s support of Thomas can only go so far.

If Rubio relented and allowed Thomas’ nomination to go to the full Senate Judiciary Committee for a thorough hearing in which Thomas could defend any of his many court decisions, he would be free to challenge him in a public forum. Instead, he’s taken the coward’s way out.

It is an uphill fight, perhaps more vicious, than Thomas may have ever had while he was growing up in the projects.

Edward A. Owens is a three time Emmy Award winner and 20 year veteran of television news. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net