Democratic Senators Exploit Hurricane Katrina Disaster In Roberts Hearing

According to the Washington Times it took less than an hour for Roberts confirmation hearings to fall into disagreement over Hurricane Katrina. That's right, Hurricane Katrina.

Democratic Senators Leahy of Vermont and Kennedy of Massachusetts, shamelessly invoked the natural disaster as evidence of their supposed need for a Supreme Court that wants to close the gap between rich and poor:

Leahy
Today, the devastation, despair facing millions of our fellow Americans in the Gulf region is a tragic reminder of why we have a federal government, why it's critical that our government be responsive.

[. . .]

If anyone needed a reminder of the growing poverty and despair among too many Americans, we now have it.

And if anyone needed a reminder of the racial divide that remains in our nation, no one can now doubt we still have miles to go.

Kennedy
Americans are united, as rarely before, in compassion and generosity for our fellow citizens whose lives have been devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

That massive tragedy also taught us another lesson.

The powerful winds and flood waters of Katrina tore away the mask that has hidden from public view the many Americans who are left out and left behind. As one nation under God, we cannot continue to ignore the injustice, the inequality and the gross disparities that exist in our society.

The Quotations are from transcript of today's hearings provided by the New York Times.

I agree with Texas' Republican Senator John Cornyn:

We ought not to appropriate a national tragedy in a misguided effort to further a political interest of any sort.

Shame on Senators Leahy and Kennedy.

Comments

[Matthew Shugart]

Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn: "We ought not to appropriate a national tragedy in a misguided effort to further a political interest of any sort."

I've been searching for Cornyn's statement of outrage regarding a previous use of imagery of a national tragedy to further a political interest.

But for some reason, I just can't seem to turn anything up.