OpinionJournal.com
December 02, 2003
In the strange-bedfellows department comes news that Al Sharpton's campaign is receiving a helping hand from the conservative Committee for Justice, founded by Republican stalwart Boyden Gray.
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The roly-poly Rev and the gangly attorney apparently have something in common: a desire to see the Senate vote on Janice Rogers Brown, the California judge President Bush has nominated to the D.C. Circuit. Judge Brown, who is African-American, is the latest addition to the Democrats' filibuster list.
Or do they? Less than 24 hours after Mr. Sharpton told talk-radio host Armstrong Williams that Judge Brown deserved an "up-or-down vote" on the Senate floor, his campaign issued a coy press statement purporting to "clarify" the Rev's remarks. Most of the release was devoted to Mr. Sharpton trashing Judge Brown. But he pointedly did not disavow his remarks about an up-or-down vote and even mentioned the need for the "full Senate" to decide. Sounds like a non-denial denial to us.
Now the Committee for Justice is putting Mr. Sharpton's original remarks before the voters of South Carolina. Here's the transcript of a TV ad that began airing Monday:
Sharpton: "She should get an up-or-down vote."
Voice-Over: "Al Sharpton gets it."
Sharpton: "I don't think she should be opposed because she doesn't come from some assumed club." [On screen -- a photo of Justice Janice Rogers Brown.]
V.O: "The daughter of a share-cropper who worked her way through law school as a widowed mother has been nominated to the second highest court in the land. But she's being blocked by Sen. John Edwards."
Sharpton: "For us to pocket-veto people based on our social settings is as wrong to do to people today as it was done historically to our people."
V.O.: "Al Sharpton gets it; Senator Edwards doesn't. Shame on you Senator Edwards."
--Melanie Kirkpatrick