The conventional wisdom this week is that Democrats are going to go along with the confirmation of John G. Roberts so that they can fight the president's next Supreme Court nominee free from charges that they're reflexively obstructionist. But if that's the plan, somebody forgot to tell the chairman of the Democratic Party. In an email to supporters today, Howard Dean says that Roberts is the "wrong man at the wrong time for our country."
Dean says that Roberts "has spent a career using the law to protect corporate interests and roll back the rights that protect us all." But most of his case against the nominee seems to be built around guilt by association with the Bush administration and the "extremist" Republican leadership.
"In the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the disastrous response, we have seen the consequences of government by ideologues and political cronies," Dean writes. "We have also seen the stark reality of American life that people like Roberts, [Karl] Rove and [Tom] DeLay either don't understand or choose to ignore -- that inequalities still persist to this day.
"Our rights -- and the rights of the most vulnerable in our society -- are in danger. They are in danger from those who actively seek to roll them back, and they are in danger from those in positions of leadership who don't understand how important it is to protect the rights of every American."
Shares