01 Aug 2005 Fleas Come with the Dog, by Mychal Massie

As my grandmother used to say, “the fleas come with the dog.”  Seldom have I seen her adage more graphically proven than among those opposing the confirmation of John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The savage ad hominem attacks from left-wing special interests directed over the years at Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, current and former Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, Judge Janice Rogers Brown and now John Roberts and his family show that these political extremists are more than willing to engage in the politics of personal destruction they once claimed to deplore.

Throughout their barrage of criticism, mud-slinging, innuendo and outright dishonesty, it is extremely rare to find a liberal willing to criticize a colleague for even the most extreme and tasteless words and deeds.

This is hardly the case, however, among conservatives.  Take the recent comments by Pat Robertson suggesting the U.S. government “take… out” anti-American Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez.  Robertson was taken to task by a spectrum of conservative critics including talk show host G. Gordon Liddy, political allies such as the American Family Association, religious allies such as the National Association of Evangelicals and the Bush Administration.

But it’s not quite the same amongst the left, and this allows the extremism to fester.  For example, NARAL created an ad suggesting Judge Roberts approves of bombing abortion clinics, when his record clearly shows he’s considered perpetrators of such actions “criminals” and “misguided individuals.”  It was only the bad publicity when the truth was revealed that forced NARAL to pull the ad.

After appearing at a recent C-Span-televised press conference on the Roberts nomination, I received two e-mails that present a dramatic picture of the collective mindset of those opposing the Roberts nomination.

The first, from Lin Browne, read:

It is particularly disgraceful that [you do] not recognize the harm done when women are forced to carry to term human life they do not want.  Life brought into this world by a body which despises it does not even make for good adoptive material.

The notion that every fetus matters is absurd… [you] and [your] little wannabe-conservative hateful handful of religious freaks speaking at the National Press Club yesterday was pitiful.

[You] are a cult!!! A cult of fetus fetishists… [F]etus worshippers who have no regard for real live mature human beings and instead try to speak on behalf of sperm and an egg that collided. We are all bacteria.

Motherhood is a means to keep women in lesser status, preoccupied with unpaid, unappreciated labor… [S]afe, free and legal abortion on demand.

Ms. Browne espouses a common belief of extremist groups opposed to the Roberts nomination.  People for the American Way is one such group.  It also opposes restrictions on simulated child pornography, despite an unacceptable number of sexual assaults involving children, and supports redefining marriage, deleting “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, forcing Boy Scouts to permit openly homosexual scoutmasters, partial-birth abortion, judicially-imposed tax hikes and racial quotas in college admissions.

And then there is the e-mail from Lionel Jefferson bringing race into the equation. He wrote:

You’re not only a traitor to your race, but to humanity as a whole.  What a sickening cretin you are.

I saw you on TV shufflin’ fo the man defending the most anti-black, anti-working class, anti-poor judicial candidate one can imagine… as part of your sell-out con game.

These are just two unambiguous examples of attacks from the left – apoplectic histrionics, lies, misrepresentations and ad hominem attacks.  It shows the extent of their willingness to prevail at any cost.

I do not have a crystal ball.  I cannot look into the future to see what kind of justice John Roberts will ultimately be if he is confirmed.  But I hope his service will be the kind of political flea powder America needs.