TFP: "Tennessee Plan takes politics out of politics!"

I missed last week's Times Free Press editorial, and I bet you did as well. Which is a shame since the op/ed declares that commission-based selection of judges manages to remove politics out of the process of selecting judges! From the article ("A threat to courts’ integrity"):

Tennessee’s system of selecting appellate and Supreme Court judges has for years provided an exemplary service to Tennesseans. While voters ultimately elect the judges, they do so under a selection process that preserves judicial independence and integrity by eliminating the traditional corrupting pitfalls of campaign contributions, partisan and ideological agendas, and the power of lobbyists and wealthy special interests.

While it's debatable that "the Tennessee Plan" has served Tennesseans in an "exemplary" way, even the system's staunchest supporters admit that politics are part of the process, while asserting that pushing the politics to unaccountable commissions meeting in secret somehow improves the process.

Regardless, there's no question that the system has played handmaiden to the Lawyers' Lobby in Tennessee. Power to the Lawyers!!