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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Unjustified smearing

Hans von Spakovsky, who has recently withdrawn his name as a nominee for the FEC because of Democratic intransigence against his nomination, responds to his critics today in the Wall Street Journal. He details how ideologues in the Justice Department working together with the ACLU and Democratic politicians, chiefly Barack Obama who had been blocking his confirmation, have been smearing him with accusations of racism for taking positions that have been upheld by the Supreme Court.
I have been relentlessly attacked over the past two years for my stance in that Texas redistricting controversy, and for the Justice Department's preclearance, under the Voting Rights Act, of a voter ID law from Georgia. But the Supreme Court and other federal courts have made it quite clear that the Justice Department reached the correct legal conclusion in both cases. The opinions of the career lawyers in those cases were rejected for good reason; as I held all along, they were legally wrong.

I explained all of this in great detail in materials I provided to the Senate after my confirmation hearing in June 2007. No matter; the reasoned – and undisputed – legal explanation was ignored by the left, the media and the Democratic Senators trying to stop my confirmation. Yet I am still being called a racist and a "vote suppressor" because I agree with the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of voter ID laws.

The Bush administration filed more voting-rights lawsuits in its first five years than the Clinton administration filed in its last five years. And we did so without having over $4 million in attorneys' fees levied against us for filing frivolous discrimination claims, as occurred during that administration.
As he concludes, the real victim here is an honest confirmation process untainted by such ugly politicking for partisan advantage.
My own hard feelings will pass. But the political system has been damaged once more by the poisonous tactics of the left, and there is no reason to think that the whole sorry spectacle will not be repeated again and again and again. So long as such tactics are accepted and even encouraged by politicians and the media, it will become harder and harder to find ordinary citizens willing to submit to the character assassination that now passes for our confirmation process.
Alas, I fear that that horse is already out of the barn and we will never have the Senate look just at a nominee's qualifications without having such ugly personal and partisan attacks. Our recent history has demonstrated how successful these attacks have been.
Labels: Congress

posted by Betsy Newmark permalink 7:47 AM

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HOME Betsy neither necessarily uses, nor endorses, the products advertised on this site. Comments from an AP history and government teacher in Raleigh, NC. e-mail betsynewmark AT gmail.com Site Feed Wikio Your Market Research Here		Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Unjustified smearing Hans von Spakovsky, who has recently withdrawn his name as a nominee for the FEC because of Democratic intransigence against his nomination, responds to his critics today in the Wall Street Journal. He details how ideologues in the Justice Department working together with the ACLU and Democratic politicians, chiefly Barack Obama who had been blocking his confirmation, have been smearing him with accusations of racism for taking positions that have been upheld by the Supreme Court. I have been relentlessly attacked over the past two years for my stance in that Texas redistricting controversy, and for the Justice Department's preclearance, under the Voting Rights Act, of a voter ID law from Georgia. But the Supreme Court and other federal courts have made it quite clear that the Justice Department reached the correct legal conclusion in both cases. The opinions of the career lawyers in those cases were rejected for good reason; as I held all along, they were legally wrong. I explained all of this in great detail in materials I provided to the Senate after my confirmation hearing in June 2007. No matter; the reasoned – and undisputed – legal explanation was ignored by the left, the media and the Democratic Senators trying to stop my confirmation. Yet I am still being called a racist and a "vote suppressor" because I agree with the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of voter ID laws. The Bush administration filed more voting-rights lawsuits in its first five years than the Clinton administration filed in its last five years. And we did so without having over $4 million in attorneys' fees levied against us for filing frivolous discrimination claims, as occurred during that administration. As he concludes, the real victim here is an honest confirmation process untainted by such ugly politicking for partisan advantage. My own hard feelings will pass. But the political system has been damaged once more by the poisonous tactics of the left, and there is no reason to think that the whole sorry spectacle will not be repeated again and again and again. So long as such tactics are accepted and even encouraged by politicians and the media, it will become harder and harder to find ordinary citizens willing to submit to the character assassination that now passes for our confirmation process. Alas, I fear that that horse is already out of the barn and we will never have the Senate look just at a nominee's qualifications without having such ugly personal and partisan attacks. Our recent history has demonstrated how successful these attacks have been. Labels: Congress posted by Betsy Newmark permalink 7:47 AM \|

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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Unjustified smearing