Judicial Fight Prompts Duelling, Distorted Ads

[splat@14]

Both sides twist facts about Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen.

May 10, 2005
Modified: May 10, 2005
Summary



Millions are being spent on rival ads supporting and opposing two of President Bush's most controversial judicial selections. Neither ad is completely accurate.

An ad by the pro-Bush group Progress for America implies that Texas judge Priscilla Owen has been endorsed by a newspaper that actually says she's biased in favor of large corporations and "often contorts her rulings" to conform with her conservative outlook.

A rival ad by the liberal People for the American Way quotes Texas judge Janice Rogers Brown as saying seniors "are cannibalizing their grandchildren," without making clear she was speaking metaphorically of debt being passed on to future generations by entitlement programs.


Analysis



Progress for America says it is spending $3 million on its ad promoting Bush's nominees, and People for the American Way (PFAW) says their ad is part of a $1 million TV, radio, and print campaign opposing them. Both campaigns are targeting Alaska, Arkansas, Maine, Nebraska, North Dakota, Rhode Island, and People for the American Way's ad is also running on national cable stations.

http://www.factcheck.org/article325.html

[LittleClarkie]

1. Even Gonzalez called her an "activist"

I thought it was interesting that, contrary to what they say, they don't mind activists. They just want the judges being activists for THEIR agenda. Conservative but fair isn't good enough.

[splat@14]

2. I think Brown will probably get thru. Owen is dangerous. Anyone with

close ties to Rove scares me. That said, she'll probably make it too. People just don't understand that for must of us, the district courts are our "Supreme Court". The majority of cases never go above that.

[beaconess]

3. Brown is even more dangerous than Owen...

She would be seated on the DC Court of Appeals, a Court that has much more influence on many more issues than the Fifth Circuit, where Owen is pending.

[splat@14]

4. What turned her?

One would think her background and that she clawed her way out of poverty would have resulted in a more balanced approach to the public welfare.

Thx, I'll read up on her more.

[beaconess]

5. That's what the Republicans want you to believe

That's why they're always parading her "sharecropper daughter" background as if that alone makes someone fair.

The fact that someone comes from a humble background does not, in and of itself, mean that they will be fair or care about the unfortunate. Some folks who come from such backgrounds - Clarence Thomas and Tom Delay are examples - turn their backs on their past when they achieve power, money or fame, seeing their ability to rise above their circumstances as some kind of proof of their own superiority and, thus, the failure of others to achieve similar strides as evidence of inferiority, laziness or unfitness.