Sen. David Vitter's silence about the former judge in Tangipahoa Parish who refused to marry an interracial couple has caused a controversy in the blogosphere, and his admission in a guerilla-style interview that he isn't familiar with a key civil rights trial is likely to fan the flames.
While leading Louisiana authorities on both sides of the aisle have condemned the judge's actions, such as Sen. Mary Landrieu and Gov. Bobby Jindal, Vitter has yet to publicly condemn the judge on the matter. The closest thing you can find to a comment on the issue is a statement issued by a spokesman which said Vitter believes "all judges should follow the law as written and not make it up as they go along."
That statement also attacked Mike Stark, a blogger who runs StarkReports.com, a liberal blog focuses on providing surprise, handheld-camera interviews with politicians. In October Stark caught Vitter as he was on his way into an elevator. Stark tells Vitter on camera that he is the only senior Louisiana official to not comment on the case; Vitter, however, says just "that's not the case" as the elevator door closes.
Stark's latest video, which is now surfacing on Twitter and the blogosphere, is likely to reignite the issue. In it, Stark asks Vitter if he's aware of Loving v. Virginia, a crucial, 1967 civil rights trial that ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States. Vitter says that he's not familiar with it and hasn't read it, instead saying he's focused on hot-button issues like health-care reform and cap-and-trade.
Stark attacked Vitter on his blog for again dodging the issue, using a rather manipulative title in the process ("Senator Vitter doesn’t know if Loving was correctly decided") that suggests Vitter stands against the ruling, when the issue is more of him not knowing of it in the first place. Nevertheless, the entry popped up on uber-blog site Huffington Post
Keith Bardwell, the justice of the peace from Tangipahoa Parish, resigned earlier this month. The Louisiana Supreme Court named a replacement Tuesday.
A Vitter spokesman has said it's "amazing" anyone would do a story on the blogger's interviews. The spokesman called StarkReports a "fringe, left-wing political hack's blog" and said Frank has been handcuffed and detained in the past over his actions.
