Ernie Chambers on Rehnquist

State Senator Ernie Chambers of Omaha wrote a letter to the Omaha World-Herald's Public Pulse today sharing his own personal feelings about the career of recently-deceased Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

Last week, I wrote a post of my own seeking to balance the World-Herald's unthinking worshipfulness of the man, but Chambers cuts to the heart of Rehnquist's shameful legacy. Let's let "the Legend", aka "King Cobra," have his say:

Racism.

This word attaches to the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist and to the genocidal mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe.

Rehnquist did more to undermine and, in some instances, erase the fragile "rights" of black people than any chief justice since Roger B. Taney, author of the notorious Dred Scott opinion of 1857 that contained the infamous declaration that blacks "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." Rehnquist was Taney's alter ego.

Although, like God, I "take no pleasure in the death of the wicked," I also am like Native Americans who wept not at the demise of George A. Custer and like Jews who did not mourn the execution of Adolf Eichmann. I neither weep nor mourn due to the passing of Rehnquist. In fact, he hung around too long.

Racism is behind the criminal policy of mini-genocide visited upon the poor, black people in New Orleans. Regardless of how white apologists may temporize, the facts speak for themselves. And the world is watching, listening and learning.

The height of political cynicism is President Bush's hypocritical call for a "day of prayer" on Sept. 16 when what is needed is action.

Ernie Chambers, Omaha
Nebraska state senator, District 11

Though I certainly respect Chambers for his tenacity and passion, I'm not always on the Ernie bandwagon. Still, the man is willing to say things (some needing to be said) that not even this humble blogger would dream of emulating. He answers to Ernie Chambers and his voters - no one else - and here I'd venture a guess he's made them both proud, though the Eichmann comparison is even too much for me.