Frank Ricci is Sotomayor Target: Frank Ricci the new Joe the Plumber

Frank Ricci is the New Haven, Connecticut firefighter who just had his reverse discrimination lawsuit upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision brought to light Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor's decision against Ricci in a District Appeal Court ruling. The People for the American Way are stepping in to discredit Ricci. Don't you know they would?

Frank Ricci

The City of New Have paid $100,000 to a testing firm to come up with an exam "completely free of any racial bias." Ricci took a test for promotion along with other firefighters. Nineteen Whites and 1 Hispanic (considered White and Hispanic) passed the test but in the end, was denied promotion because no Blacks and only one Hispanic passed the exam. There were no promotions for anyone!

The city gave the test to 118 candidates, 27 of whom were black. None of the black candidates scored high enough to qualify for the 15 immediately available positions. All 20 of the plaintiffs qualified. After a series of raucous meetings, the city civil service board decided to scrap the test results and promote no one.

The firefighters filed a reverse discrimination case that was heard by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, on which Sonia Sotomayor sat. Sotomayor and a majority of the Appeals court sided with the city of New Haven that the city had a valid concern that had the White firefighters been promoted, the city may have been sued for civil rights violations, by the Black firefighters who failed the test. The case made it's way to the Supremes and in June in a 5-4 vote, the Court overturned 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Sotomayor's confirmation for the highest court in the land begins on Capitol Hill on Monday, July 13th. Ricci is expected to testify in front of the Judiciary Committee, on behalf of Republicans. People for the America Way, and reportedly other unnamed sources are "discreetly" urging "journalists" to look into Frank Ricci and his "litigious background." In 1995, Ricci filed a lawsuit against the city of New Haven for discrimination related to his dyslexia. Another story is making the rounds of Ricci being fired by a fire department in Middletown, Ct because Ricci reported safety concerns. That fire department was fined for safety violations but the lawsuit went nowhere.

With his awards for bravery, some 17 years of fire department service and history of overcoming dyslexia, Ricci has become a compelling human character in the Sotomayor confirmation drama. Senate Republicans have summoned him, along with Lt. Ben Vargas of the New Haven Fire Department, as two of their 14 witnesses next week.

For information about the test and the positions that went unfilled, read this. So what this boils down is a hit job on Frank Ricci. The Left plans to turn Frank Ricci into the new Joe the Plumber. You probably remember Joe Wurzelbacher, known as Joe the Plumber, asking the campaigning Senator Barack Obama "you are going to raise my taxes, arent' you?" In that moment, Mr. Wurzelbacher's life changed. With the camera rolling, he told Obama that he was a plumber and might be buying a company that would make $250,000+ a year. Obama told Joe that "spreading the wealth around" was a good thing. Blogs on the Left and the mainstream media had a field day. Accusations against Joe flew: he wasn't registered to vote, he was a liar and then Politico.com reported that Wurzelbacher had a lien against his property. From Michelle Malkin:

After Wurzelbacher told Katie Couric that Obama's rhetorical tap dance was “almost as good as Sammy Davis, Jr.,” the inevitable cries of “bigotry” followed. (There are now tens of thousands of hits on the Internet for “Joe the Plumber racist.”)

This is what Frank Ricci has to look forward to. Frank Ricci, the Sotomayor target, the new Joe the Plumber.