ConfirmThem

By Carol Platt Liebau Posted in Judiciary Committee — Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

MoveOn.org has denied credible reports that they intended to use images of Hurricane Katrina victims in ads to run in opposition to the Supreme Court nomination of John Roberts. It's reasonable to suspect that MoveOn did intend to use the ploy, and then reversed course at the last minute.

In fact, the left generally seems to have fallen upon the strategy of simply trying to claim that Republicans "don't care" about African-Americans. This theory is bolstered by indications that the Democrats have decided to try to turn the Roberts hearings into a sort of "civil rights" tutorial -- with the implicit accusation that both the nominee (and the Republicans) are insufficiently concerned with "civil rights" as defined by them (after all, no one on the left seems concerned about the civil right to pray in public, or similiar matters).

According to this piece, the Democrats are going call as witnesses at the Roberts hearing the following people: A male coach whose suit for gender discrimination was upheld when he was fired for complaining about mistreatment of a girls' sports team and Rep. John Lewis, who was beaten during the Selma civil rights march.

Well, Republicans need to make it clear to the Democrats that they are not the ones who need the civil rights tutorial. After all, Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.

And, since a Supreme Court seat is at issue, it's worth noting that Chief Justice Edward Douglass White -- a member of the KKK -- was originally appointed to the Supreme Court by Grover Cleveland, a Democrat. And it was FDR -- hardly a Republican-- who nominated Hugo Black for the Court, the only other Justice to have been a member of the KKK.

The Civil Rights bills of the '60's were passed because of the masterful work of Senator Everett Dirksen (R-IL), and with Republicans voting in favor in much greater percentages than Democrats -- some of whom (Robert Byrd) led a filibuster, while others (Albert Gore, Sr.) steadfastly opposed the bill to the end.

And the Republicans have no former members of the KKK in their caucus -- much less as a former majority leader (paging Robert Byrd, D-W.VA).

So perhaps while the Democrats try to offer a tutorial to the Republican on Civil Rights, the Republicans should politely note that, given the Dems' history, it would be much more appropriate for them to be offering the civil rights lesson.