And people wonder why the President doesn't want photographers down there.  The bodies haven't even been recovered yet and they are using them for political points

Group's TV ad uses storm's aftermath to target Roberts


The televised images of poverty-stricken evacuees from Hurricane Katrina are part of a provocative, last-minute effort by a liberal interest group to divert federal Judge John Roberts' path to confirmation as chief justice.

'We believe John Roberts' record on civil rights ... is clearly not the direction our country needs to head now,' a MoveOn.org spokesperson said.  
By Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

MoveOn.org Political Action plans to unveil a TV ad on Monday that questions whether Roberts is sensitive enough to civil rights concerns to lead the Supreme Court. The ad suggests that the plight of the mostly African-American evacuees in New Orleans showed that poverty remains a serious problem among minorities, said Ben Brandzel, the group's advocacy director. In a mix of judicial and racial politics, the ad then suggests that minorities could suffer if the Senate confirms Roberts.

"The connection is obvious," Brandzel said. "The images after Hurricane Katrina show we still live in a society where significant racial inequities exist. We believe John Roberts' record on civil rights ... is clearly not the direction our country needs to head now."

Conservative groups such as the Committee for Justice accused their opposition of playing politics with the disaster on the Gulf Coast and saying that the conservative Roberts has favored several legal positions that would benefit minorities and the poor.

"It is sickening that some in Washington would politicize a national tragedy," said Sean Rushton, executive director of the Committee for Justice.

The MoveOn ad is to begin airing on the day that Roberts' confirmation hearings begin in the Senate. Roberts, a former government lawyer who argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court while in private practice, has been under scrutiny since he was nominated to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in July. After the death of conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist last weekend, Bush tapped Roberts for chief justice.

Roberts has appeared to be headed for a fairly easy confirmation. But in recent days, liberal groups such as MoveOn and People for the American Way, along with Senate Democrats such as Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, have focused on memos Roberts wrote as a lawyer for the Reagan and first Bush administrations.

In the memos, Roberts advocated scaling back affirmative action and argued against a federal program the favored minorities who sought broadcast licenses. Roberts' precise views today are unclear, however, because his role then was to reflect the policies of conservative administrations.

Also Wednesday, Kennedy and the seven other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will conduct the Roberts hearings, renewed their call for the White House to release more documents from the nominee's government work. The White House, citing attorney-client privilege, did not release papers from Roberts' tenure as a deputy solicitor general during the first Bush administration, from 1989 to 1993.

Meanwhile, interest groups are preparing for a renewed battle over O'Connor's seat. Bush said Tuesday that he is "wide open" to candidates. He could wait until the Senate votes on Roberts later this month before nominating someone to replace O'Connor on the nine-member court.

Her seat is key to the court's direction because she is a moderate conservative who has voted with the court's four-member liberal wing on several issues. She has supported affirmative action in college admissions and is among six justices who have backed abortion rights.

Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way, said his group and other liberal organizations would press Bush to choose a replacement for O'Connor who "won't push the court dramatically to the right."

This is absolutely disgusting.

Quoted: This is absolutely disgusting.

And completely expected from those drones.

They don’t get it thank God.

Every time they pull one of these stupid despicable stunts it backfires. The are incapable of putting aside their hate long enough not to hurt themselves.

Quoted: They don’t get it thank God. Every time they pull one of these stupid despicable stunts it backfires. The are incapable of putting aside their hate long enough not to hurt themselves.

...and I hope they don't get it for a good while, yet.