U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar on Tuesday delivered a message to Focus on the Family: Practice what you preach.
Salazar said the Christian-values group misrepresented his views in newspaper ads accusing him of changing his position on hiring quotas so that he could raise questions about Judge Samuel Alito’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I would ask you to think a little bit about the Eighth Commandment that says, ‘Thou shall not bear false witness,”‘ Salazar said, “because there is some false witness that is coming out of this group in Colorado Springs.”
The ad claims Salazar opposed hiring quotas until Alito’s nomination and that Salazar is using Alito’s opposition to hiring quotas to challenge the nomination.
“It’s time for Sen. Salazar to become a man of his word and stop the flip-flopping,” the ad says.
In a speech to the City Club of Denver, Salazar disputed the ad. “I am opposed to quotas,” he said. “I have always been opposed to quotas.”
Officials from Focus on the Family Action, the group’s political arm and sponsor of the ad, declined an interview request. In a written statement, Tom Minnery, the group’s senior vice president of government and public policy, said:
“Our ad speaks for itself. All it contains is Sen. Salazar’s own words and published accounts of positions he has taken. It is hard to see how the senator could accuse us of ‘bearing false witness’ when all we do is inform readers of his views.”
The ad spat is the latest bickering between Salazar and Focus on the Family. Earlier this year, Salazar called the group’s tactics “un-Christian,” and he referred to the group as “the anti christ of the world.” He later apologized for the “antichrist” remark.
The senator said Alito’s views on diversity are one of many issues that he will consider in reviewing the nomination. He said he handled Chief Justice John Roberts’ nomination the same way.
“Where I’m going to be with Alito is the same place I was with Roberts: I don’t want an ideologue on the court that isn’t going to check their ideology at the door,” Salazar said.
“Right now, at least in terms of what I have seen, the documents that have been written by Judge Alito, I have concerns that he may be one of those people that does not check his ideology at the door before he puts on the black robe.”
The Senate is expected to take up Alito’s nomination early next year.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
