And Hilary Shelton, director of Washington's chapter of the NAACP, said President Bush nominated Justice Brown solely "…to get some kind of credit because she is an African-American woman…." The Black Commentator called Justice Brown a "Jim Crow era judge, in natural blackface." A cartoon posted on their web site, www.blackcommentator.com, was even more insidious. It depicted President Bush referring to Brown as "Clarence," while introducing her to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Just like that, all of Judge Brown's hard work-she rose up from a segregated Alabama community to achieve personal and professional success -- dissolve beneath the hurtful and reductive label of "Uncle Tom." This is no different than using the "N-word" to sum up an individual.

This is the approach the Democrats take every time a conservative minority is nominated for a position of prominence. This is what I call, "new racism." It's about systematically preventing conservative blacks and Hispanics from achieving positions of prominence in this country. It's about summing up complex human beings by the color of their skin. And it sends the damaging message that because we share the same skin color, we all need to think, act and vote the same way.

American Blacks and Hispanics are complex human beings. They should be allowed the intellectual freedom to arrive at those views and values that are the best mesh with their individual personalities. Whites can vote for whomever they chose. But minorities are told that they must be liberals or they're traitors to their race. This is one more assault on intellectual freedom and diversity, conducted by patronizing Democrats who still feel they know what is best for blacks and Hispanics.

"I have only one agenda when I approach a case, and that is to try to get it right," Brown told the Senate Judiciary Committee at her confirmation hearing. It's a shame that at this late date, ranking Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are more interested in the hue of her skin.