Black judge's renomination urged - Gephardt: Bush can "repair [GOPs] image on race relations"

Associated Press ^ | January 11, 2003 | Associated Press Staff

[MeekOneGOP]

Black judge's renomination urged

01/11/2003

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Two Missouri Democrats are asking President Bush to renominate the black judge who was the key witness for the opposition during Attorney General John Ashcroft's confirmation hearings.

Reps. Dick Gephardt and William Lacy Clay asked the president to appoint Missouri Supreme Court Judge Ronnie White to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will have a vacancy in April.

Judge White, nominated in 1997, was the first district court nominee turned down on the floor in four decades.

Mr. Ashcroft, then a Missouri senator seeking re-election, called Judge White "pro-criminal" because of his votes to overturn death penalty sentences.

Today, Democrats are threatening to filibuster a Bush nominee, Charles Pickering of Mississippi, whose nomination they blocked last year after civil rights groups questioned his race-relations record.

Democrats have appeared eager to return to the subject of civil rights since Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., Mr. Pickering's friend, started a controversy last month after speaking warmly of the segregationist presidential campaign that former Sen. Strom Thurmond ran in 1948.

"In light of this and your party's efforts to repair its image on race relations, we urge you to reconsider Judge White's nomination to the federal bench," Mr. Gephardt and Mr. Clay wrote in a letter they released Friday. "Such action would be entirely consistent with your stated goal of realizing the promise of America for all our citizens, regardless of race."

During Mr. Ashcroft's confirmation hearings, Judge White testified that Mr. Ashcroft "seriously distorted my record." He added, "The question for the Senate is whether these misrepresentations are consistent with the fair play and justice you all would require of the U.S. attorney general."

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/nation/stories/011103dnnatjudges.670c3.html

[MeekOneGOP]

The 'RATS keep on painting Republicans as racists. I guess if they feel that if they keep repeating the lie over and over, that people will believe it. Bush has shown the ability to repel their Divide Amerika approach to politics and to expose them in their attempts.

Oh, btw, here is a really good related article:

Entrapment by Bush: He plays Democrats for fools, and they always rise to his bait

[anniegetyourgun]

I sincerely hope that Americans can see this for the raw race politics that it is. Mr. Gephardt should be called on it and put to shame for it.

[07055]

So, Bush is supposed to nominate a democrat for a coveted appeals court lifetime appointment? These guys are sure silly.

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

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[friendly]

OK, Gephardt, (spoken like Seinfeld pronouncing "Newman") Let's nominate Clarence Thomas for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Bush should then nominate 10 ultra-consevative black Republican judges and put Pickering right in the middle for a group photo.

In your face, you swine Clinton democrat vermin!!!

[Bahbah]

Gephardt has no shame, which seems to be a central attribute of Democrats generally.

[dalebert]

Democrats better start repairing their own race relations. Keeping blacks as peons in the party might not work forever.

[AppyPappy]

It worked against Lott. They are going to milk it for all it is worth.

[07055]

Keeping blacks as peons in the party might not work forever.

Maybe not forever. But, it has worked for forty years.

[Teacher317]

Umm, Dick? No offense, but when we want or need advice on race relations, the smartest move will almost always be to do exactly the opposite of what the Democrats say "we must do"... but thanks for the "friendly advice" on judicial nominations. We'll be sure to take it under advisement, since you have all beeen such princes about all of our other nominations.

[chimera]

Even Mort Kondracke (bless his bleeding liberal heart) was laughing the other night on FOX News about the naked grandstanding of this political stunt.

[boomop1]

Gephardt is a dunce and Bush will be a fool if he aquiesces.

[norton]

More like sixty years, it just didn't show during the economic turmoil of the late depression and WW2.

[geedee]

The Demon-RATic Party's Brain-Trust!!

[Judith Anne]

Trust me on this: President Bush will not, repeat WILL NOT, renominate White. ;-D

[Missouri]

>>During Mr. Ashcroft's confirmation hearings, Judge White testified that Mr. Ashcroft "seriously distorted my record."<<


There's more going on with than just Ronny Whites liberal, inconsistant record. Word around St. Louis was that he was on academic probition while in law school (low grades?) and that he fathered a child out of wedlock.
I believe that John Ashcroft is now in the crosshairs of the leftist/democratic party lynch mob.

[chachacha]

Mr. Ashcroft, then a Missouri senator seeking re-election, called Judge White "pro-criminal" because of his votes to overturn death penalty sentences. That's good enough for me!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Paybacks are a bitch. The good judge White should consider other employment.

[TC Rider]

Whoa, this makes my head spin. The dems bottle up nominees in committee and won't even let the full Senate vote on them.

Yet, they want Bush to nominate one of their guys that did at least get the full floor vote and LOST?

Welcome to Bizarro World.

[thucydides]

This Gephardt stunt is just the latest in the endless series of democrat efforts to perpetuate the myth of a vicious racist America and of black victimization and helplessness. This is the means by which they obtain the 95% of the black vote, and a heavy black turnout, that is crucial to their being competitive in many elections. The smearing of judicial appointees, even those with exemplary records on race issues, the fictitious church-burning stories, the ugly dragging ads, the calls for reinstatement of the draft as a rhetorical device to put forth the lie that blacks are victimized by military service: it never stops. It seems entirely misplaced for people to focus on things like Lott's foolish remarks. Even if he were somehow nostalgic for past injustice, there is really nothing he could do about it. In any case, the Republicans rightfully demoted him, if only to prevent continuing democrat demagoguery. But here today, we have the democrats doing everything possible to drive a wedge between the races, to stir up paranoia and hatred, and it is treated as nothing more serious than a bit of political puffery. To me, this is the problem today, and it is every bit as hateful as the old Jim Crow. It is a deliberate effort to psychologically segregate blacks, and this time it makes them complicit, by dangling tempting preferences in front of them. If you are a black college student, the child of a successful professional in comfortable circumstances, how can you justify taking a complete free ride, when your fellow students are struggling to stay in school and end up loaded with debt? By the fact your great great grandfather might have been a slave? No, you subscribe to the Litany, the Myth of perpetual victimization. This deliberate stirring up of racial antagonism by the democrats for purposes of partisan political gain is something that should be denounced by every decent person at every opportunity.