Democrats Are Giving The Judge Nominated To Replace Kavanaugh The Same Treatment They Gave Him
Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr is credited with writing, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Karr was a French critic, journalist, and novelist who lived in the 1800s and died in 1890. As such, he never knew the modern-day Democrat party. He almost seems prescient, though.
As the Democrats and their Media allies did in a public and dramatic way with Justice Brett Kavanaugh, they are doing again with the woman nominated to replace him on the D.C. Court of Appeals. Neomi Rao was nominated by President Trump to take Justice Kavanaugh’s place on that distinguished court in November of 2018.
On January 22, 2019, President Trump announced his intent to re-nominate fifty-one of his judicial nominees, who didn’t see confirmation votes during the last Congress and whose nominations had expired at the end of last year. Neomi J. Rao was one of those. This has set off a firestorm among the Left.
Let’s be clear. Rao is imminently qualified for the position. She is currently the Administrator in the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under President Trump. She clerked under Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, U.S. Supreme Court and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She is an attorney and a law professor. Rao is a first-generation American whose parents were born in India.
If she were a liberal, Neomi Rao would be hailed as a heroic woman and a role model. She isn’t, though. Rao is a conservative and, as such, she is now the recipient of an orchestrated and vicious smear attack.
Remember the debacle of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, (D-RI) pouring over Justice Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook? It was Democrat politics at its finest. With Ms. Rao, the Left has moved up just a bit. The attacks are not from her high school days, but her time in college in 1993-1996. The Democrats and their media accomplices are dredging up articles that Ms. Rao wrote more than twenty years ago as an undergrad.
Here’s the basis for their attacks.
USA Today on January 16, 2019, wrote regarding Ms. Rao, “In an October 1994 column for the Yale Herald, titled ‘Shades of Gray,’ Rao warned of the ‘hysteria over date rape.’ She questioned laws that say an intoxicated person can’t give consent and argued, ‘a good way to avoid a potential date rape is to stay reasonably sober.’”
Hmm…I can see it now. Senators Durbin, Leahy and Whitehouse challenging Rao on the value of staying sober. No one would question whether date rape is right. Ms. Rao is expressing, though, a legitimate concern and a more practical warning.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board, in a more serious tone, opined correctly, “Not long ago, before everyone’s entire life was politicized, college was a period of intellectual development. Students are young and often write with more passion than wisdom. If writing or remarks at age 22 are disqualifying for public life, then every Member of Congress might as well resign now.”
USA Today, in the same edition, cites another “sin” of Ms. Rao. “In a 1994 piece for the Washington Times titled, “How the Diversity Game is Played,” Rao – who described herself as Asian Indian –assailed “multiculturalists, who separate and classify everyone according to race, gender, and sexual orientation.”
She continued, “Those who reject their assigned categories are called names: So-called conforming blacks are called ‘Oreos’ by members of their own community, conservatives become ‘fascists.’ Preaching tolerance, multiculturalists seldom practice it.”
Rao calls out identity politics. Wow! I can hear Senators Feinstein, Harris and Booker now try to insinuate that all people of Indian descent must think alike.
Again, The Wall Street Journal editorial nails it. “Ms. Rao’s sins aren’t that she was inflammatory but that she is conservative.”
That’s the point. The Democrats and their allies do not want a conservative in any position of leadership. The real motive for destroying Ms. Rao is maintaining liberal control of the D.C. Circuit Court to rubber stamp the left’s agenda. It began when then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid packed the court during the Obama years, and they resist what they perceive to be any conservative intruder.
Alliance for Justice, a misnomer if ever there was one, has taken a stand against Rao. Nan Aron, their director said in the same USA Today article, “Neomi Rao’s views are completely disqualifying for someone seeking a lifetime seat on one of our nation’s highest courts.”
Jess Davidson, the executive director for End Rape on Campus, agreed that Rao’s past opinions were “disqualifying.”
“Her comments condone victim blaming and perpetuate the rape culture in our schools and society that are dangerous to all individuals,” Davidson said.
These attack statements are utterly devoid of truth and reveal an inherent bias against anyone who doesn’t bow at the altar of liberalism.
I realize that this is not a high-drama, well-known, high-profile nomination. I don’t expect to see coverage of this nominee’s journey on cable news. However, just because it isn’t widely known, doesn’t mean it ought to be ignored. The Left and their allies in the media are doing all they can to sabotage our president and those who further the conservative cause. We can’t be satisfied with winning a few high-profile battles. Neomi Rao is qualified and has every right to be afforded the honor of sitting on the D.C. Court of Appeals. If Neomi Rao can be smeared and rejected, who will be next?