The Black Republican

The first time I asked this question way back in December (What Would the Democrats be Screaming?), I pointed out the not so subtle slurs and distortions being made by liberal Democrats regarding conservative Republicans who happen to be black. Back then, Harry Reid said of Justice Clarence Thomas:

I think that he has been an embarrassment to the Supreme Court. I think that his opinions are poorly written. I don't--I just don't think that he's done a good job as a Supreme Court justice.

Last Saturday, in an appearance at a Las Vegas high school, and as reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Senator Reid had this to say about another prominent black jurist:

He described California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, one of the Bush nominees Republicans will probably float first for approval, as an African-American opposed by the Congressional Black Caucus.

"She is a woman who wants to take us back to the Civil War days," Reid said.

Take us back to the Civil War days?

Does Senator Reid mean to imply that Justice Janice Rogers Brown is in favor of returning to antebellum America? He must. Why else would he use that point in history? He could have said the 1940's or 1950's as a way of saying that she wants to reverse Roe v. Wade and Brown v. The Board Of Education. Or he could have said any date after 1896 to suggest her wanting to return to the separate but equal days of Plessy v. Ferguson. But instead, the esteemed Democratic Senator choose to say Civil War days. What else are we to infer from this other than that Senator Reid wants people to think that Janice Rogers Brown wants the country to return to the days of slavery? Is that right Senator Reid, or did you mean to imply something else? If so, what, and why haven't you made similar comments about any of the other, lighter complected judicial nominees?

I mean, really, what do most people think of when they hear the term Civil War? The war that ended slavery, right? (or as Chris would prefer, the war against the racists.) But some might try to say is that it was the war of states rights, so perhaps I'm mistaken. Perhaps Senator Reid meant to infer that Justice Brown would work to return us to a time of greater states rights. But given what is in the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, that would actually be a good thing, wouldn't it Senator? You do know that one, don't you Harry?

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

No, I really don't think that's what you were implying... I think you meant that slavery thing. It's very interesting Senator that you think a black woman, born in the segregated South, a role model for all those born to prejudice and disadvantage, would actively work to take this country - and more importantly herself, her family, and her entire race - back to a world of slavery. If that is the case, then you sir are more of a idiot that I had previously thought. As James Taranto so wryly put it, you ...seems to have a problem with black jurists..., don't you?

Your idiotic and subtly racists comments about two of the most prominent and respected black jurists in the country, and your silence in the face of the racist rhetoric spewed by your liberal counterparts about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, are a disgrace. I wonder when your political party, the self-proclaimed champions of diversity and tolerance, will begin to speak up about your intolerant and narrow-minded comments?

Needless to say, I'm not holding my breath.