The left-wing blogosphere has been busy slinging mud at Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has taken over the lead GOP spot on the Senate Judiciary Committee. All on cue, the liberal bloggers are recycling old quotes out of context to smear Sen. Sessions as a racist and cripple the Republicans from voicing any opposition to President Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee.

The race-obsessed leftists are the ones wearing the bigot blinders. They see every white Southern Republican male in public office as a de facto racist. Hey, never mind that Sen. Sessions voted to confirm Eric Holder as Attorney General (a mistake, in my opinion, but an inconvenient fact the smear merchants won’t acknowledge). This is uncontestable: Sen. Sessions is a man of integrity. If he is extreme about anything, it’s about fair-mindedness. After the Left used slimy race-card tactics to kill his bid for a federal judgeship in 1986, he has served in office for more than two decades with character and distinction. He conducts himself with the utmost civility in hearings and on the Senate floor — and his colleagues on both sides of the aisle say so. Because of his own unfair treatment during the judicial confirmation process, Sen. Sessions has made clear that he will insist on a tough but fair hearing for any nominee.

As we learned during the Clarence Thomas hearings, character assassination is the stock and trade of Democrats in the SCOTUS wars. Refresh your memories of how outrageously Ted Kennedy and company
tried to beat Justice Alito over the head with the race card. Kennedy then attempted to paint Alito as hostile to women, while maintaining a membership at a club that bans women from membership. They have no shame.

Democrats in the Senate aren’t going to stand up to these bully tactics. Every Republican in the Senate with a centimeter of spine should rally behind Sessions and call out the Left for its preemptive strategy to stifle substantive debate about Obama’s Supreme Court nomination. This is no time to sit on the sidelines while one of your colleagues is baselessly defamed to provide a grand distraction. It’s time for the GOP fight back.

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Meanwhile, the bean-counters on the Left show their true colors. It’s not about qualifications. It’s about checking off the politically correct “diversity” box.