The lead story in last month’s Catalyst was on the despicable line of questioning that Senator Arlen Specter and Senator Dianne Feinstein engaged in when addressing John Roberts. We ended the story by noting that Feinstein contacted us saying she was innocent of the charges we made against her; we also indicated that we weren’t persuaded.
What appears below is Bill Donohue’s reply to Senator Feinstein’s letter. We never heard back from her, so we consider this to be the final say in the matter.
Dear Senator Feinstein:
In your letter of September 19, you said you are writing “to set the record straight about false charges” I made about you regarding your opening statement during the Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to be Chief Justice. Unfortunately, you have not set the record straight, so I will.
In my news release of September 12, I criticized you for saying that the Holocaust that took place in Hungary “occurred in the name of religion.” Now it is true that in your oral presentation you did not mention those words. But the fact remains that your office released your opening remarks to the press prior to your presentation with the accusatory words in it. That’s why the Congressional Quarterly and Capitol Hill Press Releases published your offensive remarks under the title, “Feinstein—Prepared Remarks For Roberts’ Hearing.” In short, for you not to mention this in your letter renders your attempt “to set the record straight” an abject failure.
Finally, it is always important to distinguish between those who saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust and the Nazis.
We have no agenda against Senator Feinstein, but we will not tolerate deceit from anyone. Had she simply said that the accusatory words—”occurred in the name of religion”—-were deleted from her final script, the issue would have died.
