The Republican establishment has declared all-out war on Donald Trump any Supreme Court nominee from President Obama, and they're starting out with an obnoxious bang. The first target is one of Sen. Chuck Grassley's picks for the federal judiciary, Jane Kelly, who was unanimously approved by the Senate in 2013 for a seat on the Eight Circuit. Kelly was on the possible list of nominees, which was enough for one extremist interest group to attack.
The conservative Judicial Crisis Network said last Friday it is spending $250,000 on TV and digital ads slamming Jane Kelly, an 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judge mentioned as a potential Supreme Court pick because of her ties to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
The spot paints Kelly as a “liberal extremist” because of her past as a public defender, when she represented a client on child pornography charges who was later convicted of murder.
The group acknowledged that targeting someone who hasn’t yet been nominated is unusual.
Targeting a judge championed by a Republican is unusual, too. Smearing a sitting federal circuit judge just because she's being speculated about in the news is unprecedented. So far, Grassley has been mum on the attacks, refusing to answer Democratic Leader Harry Reid's admonition to set the record straight. "The accusations leveled against Judge Kelly are despicable, and they deserve to be answered," Reid said Monday. "Sen. Grassley needs to tell the people of Iowa whether he supports the smear campaign his Republican colleagues are hurling at Judge Kelly."
Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and therefore the gatekeeper to the courts, should stand above this kind of bullshit, but he won't despite increasing pressure back home. Grassley's wearing out his welcome back home. Let's show him the door by helping Patty Judge beat him in November.
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