Tag Archives: Civil Liberties

Well, it’s widely known that Michael Steele steadily drinks the Kool-aid that the GOP serves him on a daily basis.  There is no shame or remorse in Michael Steele’s character.  He has become the “water boy” (pun intended) for the GOP.  Steele started the attack on the late Justice Thurgood Marshall last month, per the instruction of the GOP, no doubt.  The GOP strategy was to continue the attacks on Marshall, started by Steele  because they couldn’t find anything “liberal or progressive” about Elena Kagan to attack.  After all, they had to give their base some red meat, so the Marshall attacks began en masse at the start of the hearings.

Mother Jones – David Corn & Suzy Khimm

During confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, it almost seemed as if the late and legendary Justice Thurgood Marshall was the one being vetted—rather than Kagan, who once clerked for him. Republicans on the Senate judiciary committee have tried to turn the civil rights icon into ammo for their assault on Kagan, attacking Marshall as a “judicial activist” and suggesting that the same could be expected of Kagan. This wasn’t a surprise. Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, kick-started this bash-Marshall campaign last month by pouncing on Kagan for praising a 1987 Marshall speech in which the ex-justice said the Constitution, “as originally drafted and conceived,” was “defective.” Marshall had been referring to the Constitution’s definition of slaves as three-fifths of “free persons.” But Steele’s oppo gang at the RNC seized on this and zapped out a memo hammering Kagan: “Does Kagan Still View Constitution ‘As Originally Drafted And Conceived’ As ‘Defective’?”

Choosing to go after the country’s first black Supreme Court justice is an iffy strategy for the GOPers. But it’s an especially strange line of attack for Steele—formerly Maryland’s first black lieutenant governor—who used to laud Marshall as a hero.

For instance, in July 2004, Steele honored Marshall as a barrier-shattering champion on the 40th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Standing in front of a memorial statue of Marshall near the Governor’s Mansion in Baltimore , Steele declared: “Without the ’64 act, I do not stand in the shadow of this giant.” Also in attendance was Arthur Fletcher, one of the original plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education. As the NAACP’s chief counsel, Marshall had represented Fletcher in that landmark case, which ended legalized segregation in schools. During the ceremony, Fletcher told then-Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich, “Thank you for making that young man [Steele] lieutenant governor.”    Continue reading…