But even more annoying is the fact that — true to form — Judge Southwick’s attackers are once again playing that worn-out race-card. By doing so, they’ve displayed their own anti-Southern-white-male racism for all to see. Because Judge Southwick is a white male from Mississippi, he must be a racist, goes the supposition.

Of course the only case they’ve been able to drum up as evidence of this offensive and defamatory slur against Southwick suggests nothing of the sort. The case involved a state employee’s one-time use of the “n-word” while at work. Rather than exhibiting proof that Southwick is a racist, as his opponents would have you believe, the Southwick court actually ruled that, “unwarranted use by a state employee of any inflammatory or derogatory term when referring to or directly addressing a co-worker is an action that cannot be justified by any argument.”

However, the court ruled that the state cannot apply an, “arbitrary, across-the-board rule” in determining how to discipline that employee. That’s it. For that, Southwick is being falsely portrayed by the left as Larry the Cable Guy’s cross-eyed cousin with a white hood in his pick-up and a rebel flag on his porch.

But there’s good news. Republicans in the Senate have said that — as Larry himself might put it — they’re fixin’ for a fight. They’ve publicly stated that they’re prepared to go to the mat over President Bush’s judicial nominees generally and Judge Southwick specifically.

Still, liberals are laboring under a critical misconception (sorry for stating the obvious). The American people aren’t as stupid and uninformed as they think. They’re becoming more and more aware of Judge Southwick’s impressive credentials and the fact that he selflessly and heroically gave up a lucrative law practice so that he could bravely and honorably defend his country during a time of war.

If liberal senators keep it up, there’s little doubt that the American people will be none too happy with them for denying this good man the fair up-or-down vote he so richly deserves.