At 06:22 AM 1/17/2004 -0600 The Fool wrote:
>UPDATE: The smart and incisive Lawrence Solum misses the point, writing
>"Charles Pickering has received a recess appointment from President
>Bush.... This is, of course, a very significant development in the
>confirmation wars--a naturally retaliatory move by the President for the
>Senate Democrat's use of the filibuster against several of his nominees."
>A development in the "confirmation wars" is announced on some other
>weekend, any other weekend, a weekend that is not that of Martin Luther
>King, Jr.'s birthday. This is something different: the result of somebody
>inside the White House asking the question, "What can we do around Martin
>Luther King Jr.'s birthday to remind the Base that if you don't like
>Black people, the Republican Party is your natural home?"
I'm again surprised that Brad DeLong would stoop to such lies.
Martin Luther King's Birthday is January 15h. The Martin Luther King
holiday is January 19th. Bush appointed Pickering on January 16th.
Unless Martin Luther King suddenly has a week-long birthday, the date of
the 16th is without significance. I'm sure that if Bush had waited on the
Pickering appointment that DeLong would have considered making the
appointment during Black History Month to be a wink-and-a-nod too.
Further stunning about Brad DeLong's post is that most observers will tell
you that Pickering isn't being opposed because people really think that he
is a racist. Lots of people who opposed civil rights have not been
blackballed from politics for life - people in both parties. Instead,
Pickering is being opposed because he is very pro-life and very
conservative. The Democrats' usual race-baiting simply provides a
convenient excuse for opposing conservative, pro-life nominees to the
judiciary.
Meanwhile, if *any* party was injecting race into politics this week, how
about the party that protested the laying of a wreath at Martin Luther King
Jr.'s tomb on his birthday? I'll give you a hint - it wasn't the white
Republicans who were upset by this.
JDG
_______________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world,
it is God's gift to humanity." - George W. Bush 1/29/03
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