Inside Politics

A smear continues

Although Senate Democrats were unable to lay a glove on Judge (now Justice) Samuel A. Alito Jr. during his confirmation hearings, the same cannot be said for the reputation of a conservative group to which Mr. Alito once belonged, the Concerned Alumni of Princeton.

Proof of that came in a Washington Post story yesterday about how conservative groups outmaneuvered the left-wing coalition that tried to stop the high-court nominee. The article by Jonathan Weisman said Sen. Robert Menendez, New Jersey Democrat, “aggressively questioned Alito on privacy, abortion and his membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, a now-defunct group known to be discriminatory toward women and minorities.”

Now the latter part of that statement (put into italics by this column for emphasis) is false and defamatory. In fact, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy read “bigoted” statements from an article that once appeared in the group’s magazine. But what the Massachusetts Democrat failed to tell anyone was that he quoting from a satire. Thus Mr. Kennedy misled his colleagues, a national TV audience and now The Post.

Jerry Zeifman, a dissident Democrat and former chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, set the record straight in a commentary at www.NewsMax.com.

“For me, Kennedy’s effort to impugn Judge Alito’s integrity was reminiscent of Republican Sen. Joe McCarthy, who tarred his victims with the brush of guilt by association.” Mr. Zeifman said. “Kennedy’s charge against Alito was based on the fact that 34 years ago, while a reserve officer in the Army, he joined a Princeton alumni group that opposed the banning of ROTC programs from the university’s campus. Some members of the group (other than Alito) wanted Princeton to continue its traditional policy of denying admission to women. They also opposed affirmative action programs based on quotas.”

Moving on

“Since 1994 the right-wing Republican juggernaut in Congress has been unbreakable. But in the wake of the corruption scandals, President Bush’s low approval ratings and Tom DeLay’s departure, the wheels are coming off their machine,” Tom Matzzie of MoveOn.org writes in an e-mail appeal for contributions.

“This fall, there is a real chance to end the Republican stranglehold on Congress — and start moving forward with real progressive reforms. The election will come down to a money and organizing battle.

“Together we have got to stop them — and we can, if all 3 million of us get into the fight.”

MoveOn.org has long claimed to have 3 million members. Actually, it has 3 million e-mail addresses — one of them the staunch conservative who forwarded the group’s fundraising e-mail to this column.

Actual active membership? Well, during a fundraising drive Wednesday, “6,613 of us contributed $389,900 towards our $3.5 million field organizing plan for the election, smashing our goal of $250,000 for the week,” the MoveOn.org e-mail said.

Tax cuts pass

The Senate passed $70 billion in tax cuts last night, the Associated Press reports, saying that Republican leaders hope the bill will preserve President Bush’s tax reductions for capital gains and dividends.

Despite the bipartisan 66-31 vote, Republicans and Democrats showed they’re ready to lock horns this election year. They spent most of the day wrangling over whether to use the tax bill to debate a long list of politically hot topics, refusing to skip formalities normally ignored by agreement among party leaders.

“This is not a good sign of the times,” said Sen. Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican.

Eighteen Democrats and 48 Republicans backed the bill, while 25 Democrats, five Republicans and one independent voted “no.”

The central feature of the tax bill, left over from last year’s agenda, holds back the alternative minimum tax, which threatens millions of families with higher taxes this year unless lawmakers stop its growth.

The House version of the bill carries a top Republican priority, a two-year extension of the Bush administration’s tax cuts on investment income. Though not scheduled to expire until the end of 2008, many Republicans want to act now to give the tax breaks a longer life.

Bond bashes

Julian Bond, the chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, linked the Republican Party to Nazis in a speech to North Carolina college students on Wednesday, WorldNetDaily reports.

In a speech at historically black Fayetteville State University, Mr. Bond also resurrected his “Taliban” charge — this time against Republican judges, called President Bush a liar, and dismissed Condoleezza Rice and Colin L. Powell — the two highest-ranking blacks in the history of the executive branch — as “tokens.”

“The Republican Party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side,” Mr. Bond charged.

According to the Fayetteville Observer, freshmen were required to attend Mr. Bond’s lecture.

Mr. Bond also told the audience of about 900 that Mr. Bush’s lies matter more than his predecessor’s because, he said, President Clinton’s lies didn’t kill people, WorldNetDaily reports. He also referred to former Attorney General John Ashcroft as “J. Edgar Ashcroft.”

The talk caused at least one angry black family to walk out in protest.

“He went on and on name calling,” Lee Wilson told WorldNetDaily. “I walked out in the middle of his speech with my wife and three kids.”

At least two North Carolina news outlets — the Observer newspaper and the 24-hour TV news station News 14 Carolina — covered the event. Neither mentioned any of the inflammatory remarks cited by WorldNetDaily.

Failed transplant

Arkansas Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller needs a second bone marrow transplant because the first one he underwent in October was not successful, his office said.

He needs the procedure to combat a rare blood disorder that could lead to leukemia, his office said. Doctors in Seattle are trying to determine why the first transplant was not successful.

“I’m disappointed that I will not be able to come home to Arkansas as soon as I would have liked, but I am thankful that we have caught the problem early, and I am prepared to do this until we get it right,” Mr. Rockefeller said.

• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes.com.