Houston Democrats

The following is part of the article from FactCheck.org:

Summary

A pro-Bush group fired the opening salvo - they call it "a warning shot" - in what threatens to become a multi-million dollar advertising and public relations campaign over a possible Bush appointment to the Supreme Court. The ad predicts "Democrats will attack anyone the President nominates," saying that "a Supreme Court nominee deserves real consideration, instead of instant attacks."

But this ad itself is an attack that goes beyond "instant" - it was launched without waiting for Bush to name a replacement for the ailing Justice William Rehnquist, or even for Rehnquist to say publicly whether or not he will retire as he is reported to be considering. And whether or not Democrats will criticize "anyone" Bush names can't be known for sure at this point - it may or may not turn out to be true.

To support its case, the ad cites editorial blurbs from Republican newspapers criticizing Democrats over their treatment of Supreme Court nominees in the past. But the ad fails to note that the blurbs were about the Robert Bork nomination fight that happened nearly 18 years ago.

Analysis

The Republican group Progress for America released the television ad "Get Ready" on June 22. In a news release, the group reports that the ad will run through July 1 as part of a $700,000 effort to "warn opinion leaders in Washington, DC and beyond that some Democrats will soon unleash a fury of dishonest and ugly attacks about any Justice that President Bush nominates to the Supreme Court should a vacancy occur."

The group will air the television ad nationally on CNN and the Fox News Channel. In the Washington, D.C. area, the group plans to air the spot on MSNBC, CNBC, a number of Sunday morning political talk shows like NBC's "Meet the Press," and a local news channel. The group will sponsor banner ads linking to its www.UporDownVote.org site on the websites of several newspapers, including The New York Times and Washington Post, and blogs, including the Drudge Report and Instapundit.

Of course the attack ad leaves out some major points:

• The articles the ad cites are editorials from September and October of 1987 during President Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.

• While the articles are critical of those who would discredit Robert Bork, a Tribune article stated that the dispute over Bork was not the first "ugly" nomination battle, and that Jimmy Carter's nominee, Abner Mikva, to the DC Circuit of the US Court of Appeals "had a hard time with conservatives."

• It has been nearly 18 years since the Bork dispute, who was rejected by a vote of 58 to 42 in the Democratically controlled Senate. Since then Anthony Kennedy (1988), David Souter (1990), Clarence Thomas (1991), Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1993), and Stephen Breyer (1994) have been approved under George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Watch the preemptive attack on Democrats.

I'm really impressed at the lengths that some Republicans will go to tell the "truth," especially managing to find 18-year old editorial articles. It's hard to believe that is the most recent stuff they can come up with.