Demagogue

Here in Milwaukee, the NAACP's 96th annual convention opened this past weekend and Julian Bond, the organization's chairman, had this to say in his keynote speech about federal appeals court judge Janice Rogers Brown, who is among those touted as possible nominees for the vacancy on the SCOTUS:

"Unfortunately, some Democrats won't take their own side in a fight, as they showed when they entered into an empty compromise on judicial nominees .... The agreement allowed the worst of the administration's nominees to be confirmed, including the female Clarence Thomas -- Janice Rogers Brown.

"After years and years of telling us that race doesn't matter and shouldn't matter, her supporters decided that race does matter after all, just as [Thomas'] supporters did.

"Reminiscent of Thomas' confirmation fight, they played the 'race' card and the 'bootstrap' card and the 'Bible' card .... The Bible card says people oppose the (judicial) candidate not because his or her views are nutty, but because the candidate goes to church.

"The bootstrap card tells the story of a rise from poverty and hardship to triumph and glory. Janice Brown was touted as an Alabama sharecropper's daughter, but her father farmed 158 acres and they moved to California when she was young.

"The race card, of course, is the most powerful .... Using race substitutes pigment for principle, and color for capability.

"... Now we wait in trepidation as President Bush nominates a Supreme Court justice."