21 Jul 2005 Project 21 Press Release: Black Activists Chide Knee-Jerk Liberal Reactions to Roberts Nomination
Initial liberal reactions to the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. bear a striking – and amusing – resemblance to the left’s reaction to the nomination of then-Judge David Souter in 1990, say members of the black conservative network Project 21.
“This kind of reaction just goes to show that the liberals harbor a lot of preconceived notions about anyone nominated by a conservative president,” said Project 21 member Donald Scoggins. “They’d probably have the same complaints about Ted Kennedy if President Bush nominated him to the High Court.”
In the July 25 Weekly Standard, David Skinner recounts liberal criticisms of then-Judge Souter. Skinner notes: “Souter turned out… to be a stalwart liberal, a loyal servant to the groups that had mocked and despised him. The lesson is clear: Even if the current President Bush were to nominate another liberal, you probably wouldn’t know it from all the screaming going on.”
Project 21 finds that some of the 1990 quotes Skinner describes were already being repeated within hours – and, in one instance, before – the official Roberts nomination announcement:
· In 1990, several groups called Souter a “stealth candidate.” This term was repeated this week by both Wade Henderson of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and Eleanor Smeal of the Feminist Majority Foundation.
· The NAACP was “troubled” in 1990, and Henderson now finds Roberts “deeply troubling.”
· Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese now find, as the late Arthur Kropp of People for the American Way found in 1990, that the nominees’ records are “disturbing.”
· Souter was called “almost Neanderthal” by the National Organization for Women’s then-president Eleanor Smeal back in 1990, while a contributor to the influential liberal blog Daily Kos, “Hotspur,” dropped the “almost” in a description of Roberts posted more than 20 minutes before the official Roberts announcement was made.
Similarly, Coalition for a Fair Judiciary president Kay Daly, a supporter of the Roberts nomination, pointed out in a July 19 press release: “The most interesting point of Tuesday’s rumor-filled day was the release of nearly identical talking points by the Left for Edith Brown Clement and later for John Roberts. Either the Left has a stunning lack of creativity or a one-size-fits-all rejection for anyone President Bush would have nominated.”
“It’s the height of hypocrisy for this kind of behavior to be coming from the same group of people who claim to support diversity,” said Project 21’s Scoggins. “It indicates that diversity of thought and opinion is clearly not the kind of diversity they want to promote.”
Project 21 takes no position on the confirmation of any particular judicial nominee, but believes that it is in the best interest of the United States that judicial vacancies are filled with appropriate speed.
Project 21 takes no position on the confirmation of any particular judicial nominee, but believes that it is in the best interest of the United States that judicial vacancies are filled with appropriate speed.
Project 21, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, has been a leading voice of the African-American community since 1992.
For more information, contact David Almasi at (202) 507-6398 x11 or [email protected], or visit Project 21’s website at http://www.project21.org/P21Index.html. New Visions Commentaries can be found at https://nationalcenter.org/P21NewVisions.html.