Democrat Attack Dogs Waiting to Leap on Frank Ricci: SCOTUS Hearings for Sonia Sotomayor Begin Today
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on July 13, 2009
US Supreme Court reversed yet another ruling by SCOTUS nominee Sonia Sotomayor; today SCOTUS hearings begin as well as attacks against firefighter Frank Ricci
Sadly, it will also likely mark the beginning of the Democrats’ predicted smear job on Connecticut firefighter Frank Ricci. Ricci not only won a case reversing Judge Sotomayor’s previous reverse racial discrimination for firefighter promotions, but he will likely be a witness in the SCOTUS hearings.
The Democrats will unleash their attack dogs against Ricci, a man who legally and justifiably pursued justice against Sotomayor’s unfair and very non-Supreme-Courtlike decision, in their efforts to protect the affirmative action “wise Latina.” Digging up any dirt they can on this man, a regular citizen like you and me, is fair game in their eyes, but saying anything that could jeopardize Sotomayor’s approval for the Supreme Court is off limits. It could be labeled “Joe the Plumber, Part II.”
“Most transparent administration ever…”
From McClatchy: Sotomayor backers urge reporters to probe New Haven firefighter
By Michael Doyle and David Lightman | McClatchy Newspapers
July 10, 2009WASHINGTON — Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are quietly targeting the Connecticut firefighter who’s at the center of Sotomayor’s most controversial ruling.
On the eve of Sotomayor’s Senate confirmation hearing, her advocates have been urging journalists to scrutinize what one called the “troubled and litigious work history” of firefighter Frank Ricci.
This is opposition research: a constant shadow on Capitol Hill.
“The whole business of getting Supreme Court nominees through the process has become bloodsport,” said Gary Rose, a government and politics professor at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn.
On Friday, citing in an e-mail “Frank Ricci’s troubled and litigious work history,” the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way drew reporters’ attention to Ricci’s past. Other advocates for Sotomayor have discreetly urged journalists to pursue similar story lines.
Specifically, the advocates have zeroed in on an earlier 1995 lawsuit Ricci filed claiming the city of New Haven discriminated against him because he’s dyslexic. The advocates cite other Hartford Courant stories from the same era recounting how Ricci was fired by a fire department in Middletown, Conn., allegedly, Ricci said at the time, because of safety concerns he raised.
[...]
“To go after so sympathetic a plaintiff as Frank Ricci . . . is a new low in the politics of personal destruction,” said Roger Pilon, the director of the libertarian Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies. “If they were smart, they’d keep a low profile.”
Ricci, though, has his own advocates, including conservative commentators such as CNN’s Lou Dobbs and Fox’s Sean Hannity.
Nor is he the only Supreme Court confirmation witness to receive sharp elbows. In 1991, for instance, then-Senate Minority Leader Alan Simpson of Wyoming warned that witness Anita Hill would be “injured and destroyed and belittled and hounded and harassed” if she testified against nominee Clarence Thomas. Hill was preparing to testify that she’d been sexually harassed by Thomas.
Hill’s subsequent testimony threw into question Thomas’s confirmation, during a hearing he likened to a “high-tech lynching.” A closely divided Senate ultimately confirmed him.
The 35-year-old Ricci was the lead plaintiff in the case Ricci v. DeStefano, challenging New Haven’s refusal to promote white firefighters after African-American and all but one Hispanic firefighters failed to score high enough on a promotion exam.
Sotomayor and a majority of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the city’s claim that it was justifiably concerned about a potential civil rights suit being filed by the African-American firefighters.
“Sotomayor and her panel colleagues were bound by long-standing precedent and federal law,” People for the American Way executive vice president Marge Baker said in a June statement. “They applied the law without regard to their personal views.”
Last month, however, the Supreme Court overturned the 2nd Circuit by 5-4.
“Once . . . employers have made clear their selection criteria, they may not then invalidate the test results, thus upsetting an employee’s legitimate expectation not to be judged on the basis of race,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority.
With his awards for bravery, some 17 years of fire department service and history of overcoming dyslexia, Ricci has become a compelling human character in the Sotomayor confirmation drama. Senate Republicans have summoned him, along with Lt. Ben Vargas of the New Haven Fire Department, as two of their 14 witnesses next week.
Though even Republicans concede Sotomayor appears poised to win confirmation, the hearing — and Ricci’s part in them — could be exploited politically. The case is symbolic of race-based preferences, which conservatives have long rejected.
“Affirmative action remains a potentially useful issue for the GOP,” Rose noted, and “this case has the potential of perhaps mobilizing the Republican party again.”
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina added that many Americans can identify with Ricci, making him an especially attractive witness for the GOP and potentially dangerous for Democrats.
“He took on a second job and worked hard, but was denied due to the same legal concepts” that were designed to protect people’s rights, Graham said.
More excellent reading:
Hot Air: Video: Wise Latina sends Chris Matthews to leg-thrill heaven and SCOTUS overrules Sotomayor on Ricci
Michelle Malkin: Sen. Graham to Sotomayor: “Unless you have a complete meltdown, you will be confirmed.” and Day One: Spotlight on Sotomayor and Racism rejected: SCOTUS reverses Sotomayor in firefighters case and The Supreme Court high hurdles contest and Hey, Claire McCaskill: Meet Clarence Thomas
American Elephants: Democrat Group Launches Smear Campaign Against Firefighter in Sotomayor Case
Matt Apuzzo, Breitbart.com: FACT CHECK: Don’t quote Sotomayor on that, Senator… Leahy creative rewriting of history…
Talking Points Memo LiveWire: Opening Statement From Sen. John Cornyn (As Prepared For Delivery)
Real Clear Politics: Sessions: Sotomayor Will Get Fair Confirmation Hearing
Jason Killian Meath, Big Hollywood: Michael Jackson and the Supremes
Power Line: Empathetic, moi?
The Daily Beast: Sotomayor: The Drinking Game
The Patriot’s Mind: Fact Check: Senator attempts to avoid Sotomayor’s exact quotes!
John Romano, Big Hollywood: Race Only Matters When it Favors Democrats
Ed Driscoll, Pajamas Media: Some Narratives Are Better Than Others
Sister Toldjah: The Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings
Excellence in America: The Questions Sotomayor Should Be Asked – America Deserves Answers
Rosita the Prole: Sotomayor’s White Boyfriend (named “Mr. White,” you can’t make this stuff up) Dumped Her For a Younger Woman. I Think We Have Located the Origin of the “Wise Latinas Do It Better Than Stupid White Men” Remark.
Commentary Magazine: Sotomayor Morphs Into Justice Roberts
Teh Resistance Blog: Firefighter Frank Ricci about to be picked, targeted, frozen, personalized and polarized
Grand Rants: Supreme Court To Sotomayor: You Blew It… Again
Mike Sargent: NewsBusters: Coulter’s Cajun Barbecue: Coulter vs Carville On Good Morning America
Greg Gutfeld, Big Hollywood: Daily Gut: You Win, I’m Racist!
Northern Thoughts And Reflections: It Just Keeps Coming; More on Sotomayor, and it isn’t good
Ann Coulter, World Net Daily: So much for wise Latinas
The Washington Times: GOP: Sotomayor approval not guaranteed
Washington Post: Ricci Decision Provides Rallying Point for Opposition
Broken Masterpieces: How Obama Treated Republican Nominees to the Supreme Court
La Shawn Barber’s Corner: Supreme Court Sides with White Firefighters – Opinion
Op-Toons: Lawyers Advise Fire Departments to Close Until Fires Destroy More Racially Proportionate Numbers of Homes
Rasmussen Reports: Public Support for Sotomayor Falls After Supreme Court Reversal
Breitbart: Court rules for white firefighters over promotions
Fire Andrea Mitchell!: La Raza Sotomayor’s racist fire fighter promotions decision OVERULED!
Frank DiMartini, Big Hollywood: The End of Reverse Discrimination?
Legal Insurrection: Now The Sotomayor Polls Don’t Matter
Ed Whelan, Bench Memos on National Review Online: Sotomayor Vindicated?
Hot Air Green Room: Sotomayor and the politics of race
The TIW Blog: Racist, bigoted Sotomayor repudiated by SCOTUS
The Conservative Political Report: Supreme Court Rules in favor of Ricci, dumps Sotomayor
Arlenearmy’s Blog: Update to Race Discrimination Case: U.S. Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Victims
Axis of Right: Sonia Sotomayor Overruled (again) by SCOTUS
CQ Politics: Sotomayor Spin Wars Have White House Working Overtime and Did Obama Just Use the Sotomayor Nomination To Lock in Florida?
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Warning Signs about Sonia Sotomayor, from Andrew Breitbart and “Clarence Thomas & Miguel Estrada’s Backgrounds Didn’t Impress Democrats”: Ann Coulter Rejects Getting All Weepy about Ultra-Liberal Hispanic Sotomayor’s SCOTUS Nomination (video) and Repeated Bias: Sotomayor Has Made ‘Wise Latina/Better Decisions’ Remark Several Times and Friday’s Funnies: Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court Judge Nomination Political Cartoons and Obama’s Infamous 2001 Interview: Criticizes US Supreme Court for Sticking to Constitution & Not Exploring Redistribution of Wealth
PA WaterCooler.com: Say No to Sonia!
Caleb Posner’s Blog: Sotomayor the Latina Extremist
Floyd and Mary Beth Brown’s Blog: Sotomayor’s Selective Empathy
About the author
The fact is, The Obama administration IS “the most transparent administration ever”… only not in the manner he would like us to believe. His motives and goals are painfully obvious.
He lied when he said the American public would always have 5 days to study pending legislation sitting on his desk before he signs it. This is exposed (i.e. becomes “transparent” in a number of places, but you can read about this “credibility gap” here: http://grandrants.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/welcome-back-to-the-credibility-gap/
As for Sootmayor, her own words and actions betray her as such a devout racist that the only way the Obama administration can shove her down our throats is to attack the character of the victims of her racist judgements.
80% of her rulings that have been heard by the Supreme Court have been overturned by the hallowed body she now seeks to join. Simple common sense would tell any intelligent person she has more than proven herself as unworthy of the position. By her own admission, she has achieved her level by virtue of her minority status as a female AND being Hispanic. She has BRAGGED about it:as shown here on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrSXeLiT_0w
The bottom line: If the Supreme Court has overruled her on the issue of favoring a LESS qualified minority over a HIGHER qualified white applicant for a job as a firefighter, then shouldn’t it also make sense that a position on the Supreme Court also be one that is reserved for the HIGHEST qualified person REGARDLESS of Race? If so, then by her own words (and the fact that the Supreme Court has overruled her on 80% of her decisions sent to the SCOTUS), she is clearly NOT qualified for this position, but merely taking the next rung on the affirmative action ladder.
I urge everyone who reads this to contact the offices of your representatives in Congress and DEMAND they REJECT her nomination. REMIND YOUR REPS that you will remember their vote on Sotomayor when it’s time for THEIR RE-ELECTION. Now is the time for all good men and women to stand, BE COUNTED abd come to the aid of their country. Just as important: Now is the time for your representatives in Congress, along with Judge Sotomayor to be held accountable for their actions.
Gerry Ashley, Grand Rants
Beautifully stated, Gerry. Thanks for your input.
It would really surprise me if she does not make it through the Senate confirmation committee. She is also against gun ownership, and rejects the right of the states’ to allow gun ownership.
Given Ginsberg’s statement about Roe v. Wade recently, the Supreme Court is going to become more dangerous than the congress.
On another note, the nominee for the surgeon general position thinks that doctors shouldn’t make a profit. Kinda nice how that puzzle piece fits.
and the beat goes on, and on, and ON.
I am still of the belief that if a potential witness is intimidated, that may constitute something like a mistrial. Ricci must be asked if he has been intimidated. And if he says that somebody has intimidated him in any way regarding his testimony, then that confirmation should be shut down immediately.