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MoveOn.org Uses Hurricane Katrina Victims To Target Roberts?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Hurricane Katrina, Partisan Hacks, Supreme Court

Really? They’re really going to do this?

The televised images of poverty-stricken evacuees from Hurricane Katrina are part of a provocative, last-minute effort by a liberal interest group to divert federal Judge John Roberts’ path to confirmation as chief justice.

MoveOn.org Political Action plans to unveil a TV ad on Monday that questions whether Roberts is sensitive enough to civil rights concerns to lead the Supreme Court. The ad suggests that the plight of the mostly African-American evacuees in New Orleans showed that poverty remains a serious problem among minorities, said Ben Brandzel, the group’s advocacy director. In a mix of judicial and racial politics, the ad then suggests that minorities could suffer if the Senate confirms Roberts.

“The connection is obvious,” Brandzel said. “The images after Hurricane Katrina show we still live in a society where significant racial inequities exist. We believe John Roberts’ record on civil rights … is clearly not the direction our country needs to head now.”

Listen, I agree that Roberts’ record on civil rights isn’t very liberal friendly, but to use Hurricane Katrina’s victims is just a really, really bad move.

(Found on USA Today)

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 8th, 2005 and is filed under Hurricane Katrina, Partisan Hacks, Supreme Court. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “MoveOn.org Uses Hurricane Katrina Victims To Target Roberts?”

ford4x4 Says:
September 8th, 2005 at 11:22 am
More reason to NEVER believe a word they say.
N. Mallory Says:
September 8th, 2005 at 11:37 am
When I read stuff like this, I want to bang my head repeatedly against the wall.
debsay Says:
September 8th, 2005 at 12:32 pm
I don’t know where the surprise is, the ‘poor’ people have always been used as pawn to get their own personal agendas passed.
JonBuck Says:
September 8th, 2005 at 3:40 pm
What has this country become?

All pretense at civility is gone. Nothing is sacred. Nothing. The suffering of the victims only matters if you can use it to beat your political opponents.

This is not how a healthy society behaves.
Justin Gardner Says:
September 8th, 2005 at 5:22 pm
And this goes both ways. Today it’s MoveOn, next year during the mid-terms it’ll be some right-wing interest group.

Thus the need for reasoned, centrist debate where we can put down our rhetorical weapons and focus on what really matters.

Thanks for the comments.

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