A handful of Democrats in the Senate followed Schumer?s lead.  Brown ??makes Clarence Thomas look like Thurgood Marshall,? sneered Rep Diane Watson (D-CA). A joint press release by the NAACP and People for the American Way called Justice Brown a ?far right dream judge.? 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.?

Just like that, all of Judge Brown?s hard work?she rose up from a segregated Alabama community to achieve personal and professional success -- dissolved beneath the hurtful and reductive label of ?Uncle Tom.? This is no different than using the ?N-word? to sum up an individual.
 
Thankfully, Brown will get her lifetime appointment now. But the compromise agreement was only a temporary measure. With Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist expected to step down perhaps as soon as next month, the next Democratic filibuster is looming right around the corner. Look for the Democrats to resume their stall tactics then. At least one major implication is that the dearth of federal judges (one eight of all federal judgeships still remain to be filled) and impending vacancies on the Supreme Court will undermine the administration of justice in this country.