From the AP Story
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department is edging into the Senate controversy over judicial nominees, writing key lawmakers after Democratic Leader Harry Reid publicly referred to an FBI file on one of President Bush's controversial appointees.
"The letter expressed concern about recent remarks on the floor of the Senate which alluded to an FBI background investigation file provided by the Department of Justice to the Senate Judiciary Committee on a confidential basis in connection with a judicial nomination," a department official said Friday night.
The official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity [ed.: WHAT A SHOCKER!], said the letter did not refer specifically to Reid, or to 6th Circuit Court nominee Henry Saad.
Fortunately, Reid and his staff were more than ready:
"The fact that there are questions about this nominee's suitability to be a federal judge has been discussed in public for over a year," said Reid's spokesman, Jim Manley. "Senator Reid simply referred his colleagues to the source of those questions. That is Senator Reid's right and responsibility.
"Any statements or implications to the contrary are baseless and desperate partisan attacks aimed to distract Americans from the outrageous records of a handful of radical, out-of-touch judicial nominees," he added.
There were one or two folks last night in the midst of the incredible rapid response here at dKos regarding the Moonie Times/Republican slime attack against Harry Reid, culminating in DavidNYC's almost immediate debunking who worried that it wouldn't stop the assault. And, unsurprisingly, it did not. While we looked around at which of the rightwing blogs were foolish enough to take the bait, up stepped the Busheviki themselves, ready to move forward with The Takedown, no matter what the evidence. Note that they did so late on a Friday evening. Hypothesis on this? By the time it's coming up on the Sunday morning talk shows it will have the status of "Did Reid say anything wrong or didn't he?" And, of course, they will have succeeded in putting him on the defensive. The MSM will continue their usual tactic of reporting "both sides" without laying out the full truth. Note the above-cited AP story, which doesn't bother to take the easy step of verifying Jim Manley's statement. How long did it take DavidNYC on Google last night? And you can bet that Reid's folks pointed the reporter directly to those stories. But apparently the fact that the information on the problematic nature of Henry Saad's FBI background check was discussed multiple times over the last year was not significant enough for that story.
Fortunately, as I said, Reid's folks seem to know to handle this kind of thing, and we'll just have to see how it plays out and do our part in continuing to publicize the emptiness at the heart of this manufactured "concern."