Dole, Salon.com trade slaps over Boyle

The battle continues between U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole and Salon.com.

Salon and the Center for Investigative Reporting broke the news this spring that U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle, who served in the Eastern District of North Carolina, had decided a handful of cases in which he had a disclosed financial interest.

The story rallied Democratic opponents of Boyle's nomination to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, but it also buoyed GOP members itching for a fight.

Dole, U.S. Sen. Richard Burr and others have been pushing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to schedule a floor vote on Boyle, with conservatives hoping Democrats' opposition will galvanize Republicans months before midterm elections.

Boyle, a former Jesse Helms staffer, already was drawing opposition because Democrats disliked his record on civil rights and on disabilities cases.

Now comes an exchange this week in The Washington Times newspaper between Dole, one of Boyle's top supporters, and Salon.

In a guest opinion piece published last week, Dole slammed Salon's report on Boyle, calling it part of a "smear campaign" supported by the "liberal Internet magazine."

"The hard-core left is opposing the Boyle nomination," Dole wrote. She added "that any alleged breach by Judge Boyle was inadvertent, minor, and, in a number of instances, totally nonexistent."

Salon fired back.

In a letter to the editor Wednesday in The Washington Times, Salon editor Joan Walsh wrote that Salon "is a news organization, not a left-wing advocacy group." She pointed out that federal law prohibits judges from deciding cases in which they have financial interests, no matter how small.

"The record shows that Dole's charges are false," Walsh wrote.

"It is up to the Senate to determine whether Judge Boyle's conflicts of interest disqualify him from a seat on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals," Walsh wrote. "But Sen. Dole's political agenda shouldn't obscure the fact that Salon reported on Judge Boyle's record, and the law, accurately."

Boyle has stayed quiet during the turmoil, because the White House routinely asks judicial nominees to refrain from public comment during their nomination process.

That could change. Last week, Frist and Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent Boyle a letter offering him "an opportunity" to respond in writing to the allegations.

Daily Pledge plan plods

A proposed law requiring the Pledge of Allegiance be offered daily in public schools has been slowed in the Senate.

The measure that passed the House nearly unanimously last week was routed to a Senate Committee that rarely meets.

The Senate passed a Pledge bill last year, but unless both chambers pass the same version, it will not become law this year.

"They ought to pass that bill," said Sen. Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat and the Rules Committee chairman.

The House version is a bit more elaborate than the Senate edition, referring specifically to charter schools and other specialty secondary schools as falling under the requirement. It also says no one will be forced to say the Pledge.

The House could have rewritten the Pledge bill the Senate passed. Instead, House members stripped language from a Senate proposal about industry training in community colleges and inserted its version of the Pledge law.