A radio-listening FrontBurnervian sent in this report this morning:
On Hugh Hewitt (660 KSKY), Bob Ray Sanders stated that the short list of Bush’s SCOTUS choices would be as comfortable in white robes as black robes. Hewitt offered him several–several–opportunities to correct that statement and Bob Ray just kept digging deeper.
Being the investigative reporter than I’m known to be, I asked Bob Ray to clarify. Here’s his reply. (We report. You decide).
Wick,
Good to hear from you. Well, the message you received is closer to the truth than most I’ve heard, but still not accurate. This started from a blog (included below) I did after Harriet Miers was forced to withdraw as a nominee to the Supreme Court. Basically it said that those against her were looking for a real zealot, with the final line warning that you shouldn’t be surprised if the next nominee was as comfortable in a white robe as a black one. The blog, of course, appeared before there was a new nominee.
At any rate, after Alito was nominated, I appeared on the morning news show on Fox 4, and the anchor referenced that blog at the end of the interview. He asked, “Do you still stand by your blog?” I said, “Yes,” explaining that the far right wing were out to turn back the clock. He then asked if I thought Alito was a racist or something to that effect, and I said I didn’t know Alito and don’t know enough about him. He asked if I thought George Bush wanted a racist on the Supreme Court and I said, “No.”
It quickly circulated that I had said on Channel 4 that ALITO was a person who felt as comfortable in white robe as a black one. That prompted some radio host in California to call who began by saying, “I have it from a reliable source that you said, ‘Alito feels as comfortable in white robe as a black one.’”
I informed him that this source was NOT reliable. . . and related the story I just outlined. He insisted then that I apparently thought people on the list–the short list of nominees–must be racists, and if so, name them. Frankly, I said, I don’t know who all was on the list but it wouldn’t surprise me if some of them were.
He continued to insist that I name someone “on the short list” who fit the mold of Klansmen, which I refused to do. He announced that my credibility had been destroyed, and the rest is history. I have no idea what he said after I was off the air, but his listeners have been on some kind of campaign wanting me to apologize, be reprimanded or be fired from the newspaper.
That’s the story as best I know it.
Here is the original blog, dated Oct. 27th, I think:
When Harriet Miers was first nominated to the Supreme Court, I wrote a column praising her as a good pick. I have known her since she served on the Dallas City Council in the late 1980s.
The day that column came out, one of my colleagues said, “Well, you’ve just doomed that nomination,” meaning that if I thought she was good, then right wing conservatives would think she’s the devil incarnate.
Actually, my support had nothing to do with Miers being burned at the political stake. The witch-hunters in the Republican Party were looking for a died-in-the wool zealot, and Miers didn’t fit that bill. At least, she was not able to show proof of her zealotry. She has now withdrawn her name, giving the president a way out, and ideologues a new victory.
So get ready for the next nominee, who is likely to be a judge as comfortable in a white robe as a black one.
