You may recall the controversy that arose when Elaine Jones, the head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, was revealed to have asked Ted Kennedy to delay the confirmation of some of President Bush’s judicial nominees in order to affect litigation in which her organization was involved. Jones ended up resigning during that controversy.

Now Arlen Specter, in one of his first acts as chairman of the Judiciary Committee in a Republican Senate, is hiring one of the NAACP’s top lawyers. Specter wanted Hannibal G. Williams II Kemerer, who has been the group’s assistant general counsel, to handle nominations for the committee. There has been resistance to that idea, however, and Kemerer appears likely to take over other duties on the committee.

Perhaps Kemerer was some sort of dissident at the NAACP, and is not bitterly hostile to most Republicans and their ideas. It’s always possible. But here’s a friendly description of a speech he gave in 2003: Kemerer “roused the more than 150 people present to a new sense of awareness with a focus on the ‘new racism’ that is now prevalent in the United States. A racism that hides behind civility, persuasive code words and black faces.” That’s not very encouraging.

Kay Daly of the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary remarks, “I don’t think Senator Leahy is calling Manny Miranda” with job offers.