Sotomayor backers urge reporters to probe New Haven firefighter

[red states rule]

Even though she will be confirmed, the left still wants to destroy Frank Ricci for causing Judge Sotomayor trouble and exposing her racist views

It will be interesting to see how Eems treat this man who eanred a promotion and was denied the promotion because he was white



Sotomayor backers urge reporters to probe New Haven firefighter

WASHINGTON — 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.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/71660.html?storylink=omni_popular

[red states rule]

Ut didn't take long for the liberal assassins to focus in on the people behind the decisions, as they can't fix the law to suit their needs.



Thou Shalt Not Challenge Thy Betters
J.G. Thayer - 07.12.2009 - 4:20 PM
A new standard is being established in politics: if you challenge — or worse, humiliate — your liberal betters, you will be exposed, scrutinized, and — if necessary — destroyed.

We saw it with “Joe the Plumber.” This guy was minding his own business, playing with his son in his front yard, when Barack Obama made an unscheduled campaign stop in his neighborhood. This was no setup, this was no plot — Obama came to Joe, who asked him an uncomfortable question, to which Obama gave an even more uncomfortable answer. That was that. Within days, we knew everything there was to know about Joe — how he wasn’t a licensed plumber, how he’d had some tax problems, and — most shocking of all — “Joe” wasn’t his first name, but his middle name.

All for asking a question.

The tactic worked pretty well, and now it’s being applied to a Connecticut firefighter who had the gall to file a lawsuit that, at one point, crossed the bench of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. The People for the American Way — a leftist advocacy group — is urging journalists to “look into” Frank Ricci, the lead complainant of the New Haven firefighters who sued the city after passing a test for promotion and nevertheless being denied the promotion because the city discarded the results due to racial-quota considerations. (Of the twenty who passed, nineteen were Caucasian and one was Latino.)

The People for the American Way certainly seems well-named. It has apparently become the “American Way” to engage in character assasination against individuals who succeed in standing up to their liberal betters — to expose and scrutinize every aspect of the lives, employing even the media to bring them down.

Sorry, Mr. Wurzelbacher and Mr. Ricci. You thought you could ask questions or stand up for your rights? You should have known better.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/thayer/72931