
 |
|
May 13, 2013
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
April 22, 2013
US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer
April 19, 2013
Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama's visit to Israel had no impact on public opinion or government policy
Morgan Housel: Gold collapse: The start of something big?
Pete Spotts: Livable super-Earths? Two candidates among Kepler's latest finds
April 17, 2013
Shira Rubin: Too much of a good thing? 'Palestinians' realize downside of foreign aid boom
Morgan Housel: BAD NEWS: EVERYONE IS RIGHT!
April 15, 2013
Kristen Chick: Egyptian Christians respond with harsh words to attack -- rocks, Molotov cocktails, and gunfire -- against main cathedral
Marcy Darnovsky and Karuna Jaggar: High Court to decide if you should own your DNA
Howard LaFranchi: US bracing for more Russian blowback after taking action against 18 more human rights violators
April 12, 2013
Mark Clayton: New cybersecurity bill: Privacy threat or crucial band-aid?
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jackie Robinson's Friend, Hank Greenberg; CNN's Jake Tapper; Texas County in the News is named for 19thC. Jewish soldier and Congressman
The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: FRUITY QUINOA STUFFED PEPPERS: A flavorful, colorful and edible vessel of delicately fluffy, mildly nutty filling combined with chewy apricots, tangy cherries, and crunchy pistachios
April 10, 2013
Peter Grier: North Korean missiles: Could US shoot them down?
Morgan Housel: Warning: Don't waste your capital being fooled by profit prophets
Donald Hensrud, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Take vitamin supplements with caution --- even approved, they may actually do damage
Eryn Brown: 74 DNA discoveries move cure closer for three cancers
April 8, 2013
Jonathan Tobin: What Part of No Preconditions Do American Jews Not Get?
Fred Weir: Is Putin finally trading his own party for a new power base?
|
| |
Jewish World Review
June 2, 2009 / 10 Sivan 5769
It's Not Fair To Casually Call People Racist
By
Mona Charen
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has
already achieved a boon for our political culture: It has helped leading
liberals and Democrats to discover that being tarred as a racist on flimsy
grounds is unfair and deeply unpleasant. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.,
for example, when asked on "Face the Nation" to respond to Rush Limbaugh's
and Newt Gingrich's comments about Sotomayor, said, "That's an absolutely
terrible thing to throw around. Based on that statement that one word
'better than' (sic) to call someone a racist is just terrible and I would
hope that Republicans would not do this."
Sen. Feinstein is right as far she went. She avoided one
undeniable fact though. If a white male nominee had been discovered to have
said something similar that he was better situated to judge due to his
background and life experiences than a Latina woman he would be cashiered
so fast as to induce whiplash. Those are the unwritten rules that Limbaugh
and Gingrich are attempting, one suspects, to expose for their
one-sidedness. Nevertheless, the instant labeling of the woman, based on one
unwise remark, is hardly fair. If Democrats are learning this now, that's
excellent news. One hopes they will remember this discovery when the wheel
turns and a Republican nominee is before the Senate. Certainly they didn't
seem to get it as recently as 2002, when President Bush nominated Judge
Charles Pickering to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Then-Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said Judge Pickering
had displayed an "insensitivity to civil rights, to equal rights, especially
to minorities. ... This (nomination) lays bare the administration's real
position on civil rights." Leading liberal newspapers tolled the bell with
headlines like "Extremist Judge Unfit to Sit on Appeals Court" in the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution and "Say No to This Throwback" in the Los
Angeles Times.
The Democrats succeeded in torpedoing Pickering's nomination
not to mention assassinating his character. More than "insensitive," he was
called a crypto racist with a "segregationist past" (Paul Krugman). When
President Bush offered Judge Pickering a recess appointment to avoid a
Senate filibuster, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., breathed fire: "Here we are, on
the weekend before a national holiday when we celebrate Martin Luther King's
birthday, and George W. Bush celebrates it by appointing Charles Pickering,
a known forceful advocate for a cross-burner in America, to the federal
court of the United States."
In point of fact, Judge Pickering had been a friend to civil
rights throughout his career. To its credit, the New York Times actually
quoted longtime associates of the judge and members of the black community
in Pickering's hometown who "overwhelmingly support his nomination . . . and
admire his efforts at racial reconciliation." The black chairman of the city
council told the Times, "I can't believe the man they're describing in
Washington is the same one I've known for years." They recalled that as a
young prosecutor in 1967, Pickering had endangered his career (and perhaps
more) by testifying in court against the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux
Klan. He was known for hiring black staffers at a time when few white
Mississippians did. Pickering encouraged the chancellor of University of
Mississippi to form the Institute for Racial Reconciliation and served on
its board for many years. Pickering, unlike some white southerners (and many
Democrats currently serving in Congress), chose to send his children to
integrated public schools.
Pickering did preside over the trial of three young men who
burned a cross on the lawn of an interracial couple. Byron York's excellent
account in National Review reveals that Pickering was dismayed by the
Justice Department's decision to negotiate plea bargains with two of the
defendants (including the one Pickering regarded as the ringleader) and
recommend no jail time for them, while asking for seven and a half years for
the remaining defendant. One of those permitted to plea to a misdemeanor was
clearly a racist who had earlier shot a gun into a black man's home, gotten
into fights with black students at school, and convinced his drunk comrades
to burn the cross. Pickering did not think it was just to let him off and
sentence the other defendant, for whom this was a first offense, to more
than seven years. He sentenced him to 27 months, admonishing the defendant
that "the type of conduct you exhibited cannot and will not be tolerated ...
I would suggest to you that during the time you're in prison that you do
some reading on race relations and maintaining good race relations and how
that can be done."
Yet, without blushing, John Kerry transmogrified Judge Pickering
into "a forceful advocate for a cross-burner."
Judge Sonia Sotomayor deserves careful vetting by the
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. She may or may not deserve
their vote. But those Republicans should seize this teachable moment to
remember all of the fine candidates Pickering, Miguel Estrada, Robert
Bork and many more who were so shamefully treated by the Democrats who
have suddenly discovered the evil of baseless accusations.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on JWR contributor Mona Charen's column by clicking here.
Mona Charen Archives
© 2006, Creators Syndicate
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|