Thursday, January 06, 2005

Bush Sends New Message on "Kinder, Gentler"

President Bush has nominated Claude A. Allen, controversial conservative who was one of the first black aides to North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, as the president's new domestic-policy adviser.

Allen was previously turned away by Senate Democrats from becoming a judge on the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Curiously, El Presidente did not renominate HIM to the federal bench, like he did those others. Instead, Allen gets a White House job.

During his 2003 confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee for that failed judgeship, Allen was asked about remarks he made to a North Carolina newspaper during Helms' 1984 re-election campaign. In that interview, he accused Helms' Democratic challenger, then-Gov. James Hunt, of having links to "radical feminists" and "queers." In the 2003 hearings, Allen said he did not intend to slur gays. Instead, he said, he was trying to describe "odd" people involved with the Hunt campaign.

Well, granted, they WERE odd people -- given the rampant baby-eating and all -- and thank Gawd! Vernon Robinson will now have someone to talk to when he needs to call the White House.

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