Just hours after President Obama nominated Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, the liberal blogosphere is screaming over critical comments from the Republican National Committee, making racial concerns an issue during the nomination fight of the white nominee.
On Monday, Kagan was nominated to the high court by Obama during a White House ceremony. In response, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele released a statement criticizing Kagan, mentioning “her endorsement of the liberal agenda and her support for statements suggesting that the Constitution ‘as originally drafted and conceived,’ was ‘defective.’”
The problem liberal bloggers — and the national Democrats who have been sending Steele’s quotes around to reporters — have with Steele’s words is that Kagan’s “defective” quote comes from a tribute she wrote in a law review article about Thurgood Marshall in 1993. Marshall’s words referenced how the Constitution allowed for slavery.
The quote was also used in a Kagan research memo circulated to reporters from the RNC titled, “Does Kagan still view Constitution ‘as originally drafted and conceived’ as ‘defective’?”
Liberal blog Daily Kos ran an article with the headline: “GOP defends slavery to attack Kagan.” The liberal Media Matters asked: “Why is Michael Steele defending slavery?” John Aravosis at the liberal AmericaBlog asked “is it racism or rank stupidity?”
Aravosis continued: “So, the Republicans don’t think approving slavery was a defect of the Constitution? That’s really their argument, defending three-fifths a man and slavery?”