Liberals' Cry of "Foul" Reeks of Hypocrisy

From CNN -- Conservative Democratic Senator Zell Miller came under fire from "civil rights leaders" and Democrats when he equated his party's opposition to the nomination of a conservative African-American judge to a lynching.

"Either Senator Miller has conveniently forgotten a frightening period of American history, or he is willfully demeaning all those African-Americans who were hung from trees throughout the period of racial segregation in the South," said Wade Henderson, the director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Henderson and others were reacting to comments made by Miller on the Senate floor around 2 a.m Friday, when he blasted Democrats for blocking the nomination of California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

[...]

Henderson then called on Miller, the former governor of Georgia, to apologize -- a call that was echoed by Democratic Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.

"I was offended. I think it was unfortunate," Daschle said. "I think those within the civil rights leadership who have commented and have asked for an apology are right."

Henderson said, "Senator Zell Miller's comment equating opposition to the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown to a lynching is despicable on its face."

SWLiP is unimpressed by the reactionary liberal preening going on in this story, because it smacks of so much rank hypocrisy.

Take this, for example:

In an exclusive interview with CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California became the first senator to say on the record that she'll vote against Attorney General-designate John Ashcroft, and she urged President-elect Bush to withdraw his nomination.

[...]

Boxer said one of her major concerns is the way Ashcroft blocked the appointment of African-American Judge Ronnie White to the federal bench.

"I hate to use a charged term, but it's my heart talking here," she told Schieffer. "I really think it was a political lynching that happened in the United States Senate."

Asked whether she thinks Ashcroft is a racist, Boxer replied: "I never use that word against anyone. I can only judge John Ashcroft by his actions and what I am telling you is that he engineered a humiliating defeat for Ronnie White."

Did Senator Boxer characterize Ashcroft's blocking of a black judicial nominee as a "lynching?" She sure did.

Did the Dems and "civil rights leaders" (there goes that term, again) condemn Senator Boxer's use of the word "lynching" in that case? SWLiP can find no indication that they did.

And here we have an actual "civil rights leader" using the term:

Reverend Joseph Lowery, former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, addressed Governor Perdue at Martin Luther King Jr's tomb at a rally Wednesday: "If you insist on engaging in this type of political lynching, don't expect us to help put the noose around our necks."

Apologies, anyone?

UPDATE: Welcome visiting Instapundit readers. SWLiP recommends that you check out the saga of the Road Map, which begins here.