People For The American Way Targetting Ricci

Two days ago, Senate Republicans announced that New Haven firefighter Frank Ricci would testify at Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing next week.

I wrote that Senate Democrats would be gunning for him.

Well, it looks like People For The American Way are doing Senate Democrats dirty work for them.

PFAW has been circulating an e-mail concerning Ricci's "troubled and litigious work history."

In the mid-1990s, Ricci was fired by the fire department in Middletown, Connecticut. Ricci contended he was fired for raising safety concerns. The Middletown Fire Department was subsequently fined for safety violations.

If Ricci were an obstacle for a Supreme Court nominee picked by George W. Bush and Republicans were putting the heat on Ricci you can be certain what Democrats and liberal activists would do. They would lambaste their treatment of Ricci as the machinations of the Republican attack machine and accuse them being out of touch with working class Americans as well as being insensitive to persons with disabilities. Democrats and liberal activists would hail Ricci's service as firefighter and his courage as a whistleblower.

But since Ricci is a thorn in the side of the "wise Latina" and by extension President Obama, Democrats and liberal activists instead focus on Ricci as a troubled, litigious malcontent not as a patriotic, courageous whistleblower.

Again, Senate Republicans had better prepare Frank Ricci to the nines because Democrats and organizations like People For The American Way are going to turn his life upside down.