Our New Judge

WASHINGTON, June 8 - Janice Rogers Brown, the African-American daughter of Alabama sharecroppers who was confirmed Wednesday to the federal appeals court here, often invokes slavery in describing what she sees as the perils of liberalism.

"In the heyday of liberal democracy, all roads lead to slavery," she has warned in speeches. Society and the courts have turned away from the founders' emphasis on personal responsibility, she has argued, toward a culture of government regulation and dependency that threatens fundamental freedoms.

Fundamental freedoms such as being forced to drink from separate fountains, enter through separate doors, and sit in separate parts of the bus? Liberal democracy has led us inevitably down the road to a slavery wherein the female black children of sharecroppers can grow up to get an education, go to law school, and appointed by officials chosen in an election with blacks who didn't have to pay a poll tax. No wonder she's so upset. Our culture of government regulation has taken us away from the founders' emphasis on personal responsibility, like that of every slave to allow his owner to vote for his or her 3/5ths of a Representative. Is that what she means?

Much as I didn't want the Senate reduced to a nuclear blast zone, and applaud the fissure between Republican moderates and the zealots, it really galls me to have anyone who could say such things wouldn't be thrown on the Nut Pile with Alan Keyes, much less confirmed as a federal judge. We have given her the lifetime power to do great damage to our country, unless we can manage to impeach her once the Reign of Witches passes over.

God save us if she ever gets nominated for the Supreme Court.

Update: Wouldn't it have been better if the New York Times had run its front-page article detailing Brown's lunacy before her confirmation, when its readers might have, say, tried to do something with the information? Engage in the debate, perhaps even contact their Senators? It's an interesting editorial decision, don't you think?