COMMITTEE FOR JUSTICE REACHES FOR NEW LOWS…. Before Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings began this week, even her most ardent detractors were resigned to accepting her near-inevitable Senate approval. After yesterday’s hearing, any remaining hopes among her critics were dashed.
But a few right-wing activists not only think they can still rally some opposition to Sotomayor’s nomination, they’re doing so in the cheapest, most ridiculous way possible.
Yesterday, we noticed that the Committee for Justice had just unveiled two ads calling for Sonia Sotomayor’s defeat – one contrasting her to Martin Luther King and the other claiming she wants to “take away your guns.”
Now they’re out with an over-the-top and nonsensical new TV ad that equates her with William Ayers and claims that she supported terrorism by serving on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF).
“Remember Barack Obama’s buddy Bill Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist who bombed American buildings in the ’70s?” the ad’s narrator asks. “Turns out President Obama’s done it again: Picked someone for the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who led a group supporting violent Puerto Rican terrorists. Is this radical judge the type of person America needs sitting on our highest court?”
Yes, the presidential election was nine months ago, and right-wing activists are still talking about Bill Ayers. I almost feel sorry for these clowns. Almost.
Not that reality matters, but in the interest of setting the record straight, the Hispanic National Bar Association, writing on behalf of two dozen prominent national Hispanic groups, reminded Republicans last week that the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund is a “mainstream, well-respected organization that serves not only the Latino community, but the nation as a whole.”
My first instinct, upon seeing the YouTube clip of the ad, was to say, “Fine. If the Committee for Justice wants to waste money running an absurd ad in opposition to a judge who’ll be confirmed anyway, be my guest.”
Alas, it turns out the right-wing group hasn’t even bought airtime — it created the ad in the hopes that conservative donors would give the group money to put it on television. Except, even that’s unlikely, not only because donors know better, but also because, as Alex Koppelman noted, the group will “have a tough time getting stations to accept it, as it’s extremely misleading.”
The Committee for Justice is being pathetic, then, just for the sake of being pathetic.
