Last week, the White House released a letter signed by what the administration claimed were “24 conservative leaders” who support President Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
“Two Dozen Conservatives Sign Letter Endorsing Judge Jackson To SCOTUS,” blared the headline of the White House press release, citing as “conservatives” several former mid-level officials of the George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush Administrations, as well as former New Jersey GOP Gov. Christie Todd Whitman, former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, and former Republican Reps. Chris Shays of Connecticut, Connie Morella of Maryland, and Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma.
Veterans of the modern conservative movement who spoke to Newsmax universally found the list of “conservatives” laughable — if not downright insulting to true good-as-Goldwater conservatives.
Whitman, for example, has long eschewed the term “conservative” and in 2005, wrote a book entitled “It’s My Party Too” in which she criticized the politics of George W. Bush (in whose Administration she served as Environmental Protection Administrator) for being too divisive. She criticized Donald Trump in 2016 for “fascist” tactics and ended up voting for Hillary Clinton for president.
“Establishment” Republican Chertoff, having investigated Bill and Hillary Clinton for the Whitewater scandal in the 1990’s, also voted for the former first lady for president rather than Trump.
“The 24 who sent the letter should be asking themselves whether her judicial philosophy will undermine the constitution, limit the freedoms so enshrined and move the country toward the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic party,” said Allan Ryskind, former Capitol Hill editor and co-owner of Human Events, which was considered Ronald Reagan’s favorite publication.”
Ryskind added that the 24 are "not in any way 'conservative leaders' as the White House states. Nor were they ever thought to be, save, perhaps, Mickey Edwards, who abandoned his conservative credentials many moons ago. Chris Shays is mentioned as one of the 24 conservative leaders. Really? He has a 42.52 percent lifetime rating according to the American Conservative Union, once the gold standard for conservative policy organizations. Connie Morella? A lowly 22 percent. Whatever one may think of these former lawmakers, they were never considered conservatives of any kind. That's just propaganda that Team Biden is using to help get Ms. Jackson confirmed.”
Edwards, once chairman of the American Conservative Union, began moving away from his party after losing his House seat in 1992. He was a Republican-for-Obama in 2008 and in 2020 finally announced he was no longer a Republican.
David Keene, who followed Edwards as ACU chairman, told Newsmax that “[s]uggesting that those who signed this letter are ‘conservatives’ tells you all you need to know about where this White House belongs on the political spectrum. Whoever put this together is either really dumb or so far left that were [1972 Democratic presidential nominee] George McGovern still alive he might have been asked to join as a signer.”
“Whitman, Morella and Edwards have been public and clear that they are not Reagan Republicans or conservatives of any stripe,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, “The Biden team claiming that the three of them conservative Republicans does kind of explain how they could market Joe Biden as a ‘moderate’ presidential candidate.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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