And You Thought a 40-Hour Talk Marathon Was Stupid

Do you want to know how ridiculous this Senate nomination debate has become? Then check out the flap over the comments made by Sen. Zell Miller regarding Justice Janice Rogers Brown:

"The Democrats in this chamber refuse to stand and let her do it. They're standing in the doorway, and they've got a sign: Conservative African-American women need not apply. And if you have the temerity to do so your reputation will be shattered and your dignity will be shredded. Gal, you will be lynched," Miller said.

Well, Zell's fellow Democrats were aghast at Zell's choice of analogies, as you might imagine, and all of the rhetorical cannons were fired:

"I was offended. I think it was unfortunate," Daschle said. "I think those within the civil rights leadership who have commented and have asked for an apology are right." ... "Either Senator Miller has conveniently forgotten a frightening period of American history, or he is willfully demeaning all those African-Americans who were hung from trees throughout the period of racial segregation in the South," said Wade Henderson, the director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Oh, the irony! The leadership of the Democrats and the civil rights movement are enraged and demanding a retraction and an apology from a Southern conservative ... because he wants to put an African-American woman on a federal appellate court ... and the civil rights groups and Democratic leadership want her kept off the bench. Combined with the comments from the NAACP about Condoleezza Rice being a murderer, and it's obvious that the civil rights movement is over, done, finished. The vestigial remnants exist only to keep African-Americans in the Democratic political ghetto, and to smear African-Americans who dare to escape from the intellectual plantation. And if you think those analogies are too strong, then all you need to do is look at this cartoon from the Black Commentator that was used in the campaign against Brown by the NAACP:

Image courtesy Power Line, which ran a good post on Brown's nomination and the use of this cartoon.

Update: Strange Women Lying in Ponds has some background on previous use of the word "lynching", where Democrats didn't seem nearly as concerned with historical perspective as they are today. And Liberty Lover has Ted Kennedy calling Justice Brown a Neanderthal; apparently, calling African-Americans cavemen is A-OK with "civil-rights" groups as long as you're a Democrat.

Like I said, the civil-rights movement is officially over. (Update links via Instapundit)

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