September 26, 2005
Wendy E. Long, counsel to The Judicial Confirmation Network, today made the following statement regarding press reports that staffers from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), chaired by U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), had illegally obtained Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele's confidential consumer credit report:
"We now have proof that the partisan committee run by Senator Schumer has been illegally invading the privacy of prominent Republican officials. We also know from a previous scandal that Senator Harry Reid's former staffer, who now runs a left-wing 'opposition research' company, has been hired by NARAL to dig into the personal information of some 30 sitting federal Court of Appeals judges who are potential nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Press reports state that the U.S. Judicial Conference received a request from Reid's former communications director's firm seeking the financial disclosure records of U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Edith Jones, long known to be a top potential Supreme Court nominee. It is obvious that NARAL did not hire an expensive investigative company to obtain only public records. And we now have proof that an official Democrat committee is itself illegally obtaining private personal records.
"Rhode Island Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee is up for reelection next year in what many consider to be a close race. He might want to ask his colleague Senator Schumer if the DSCC has been illegally violating his privacy or are they just targeting black Americans who happen to be Republicans?
"The irony is fairly striking that the Democrats who plan to grill the next Supreme Court nominee even harder than they did Judge Roberts on the issue of 'privacy' have so little concern for the privacy of their fellow citizens. Most Americans are very concerned about the privacy of their financial, medical, and other personal data exactly what the Democrat Privacy Hypocrites are violating. Meanwhile, the Democrat Privacy Hypocrites sanctimoniously grill Supreme Court nominees on 'privacy,' which to them is a code word for unregulated abortion on demand.
"While Senator Schumer stands in the spotlight, lashing out at our country's 'pitiful privacy protections for consumers,' denouncing companies for security holes and lack of controls that have led to credit card fraud and identify theft, the Democrat Privacy Hypocrites ply their trade in the dark.
"The Democrat 'Fear and Smear' machine rolls on. Senate Democrats wouldn't stand up to NARAL for its false advertising about Judge Roberts. Now that their own Senatorial Committee has engaged in such violations of privacy, will no Democratic Senator stand up and say to the Privacy Hypocrites "Have you no shame?"
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