In 1999, when Conrad was a prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Western North Carolina, he went after a group of nuns who opposed the death penalty. In a letter to the editor printed in the Catholic Dossier, he referred to Sister Helen Prejean as a “church-hating nun” and said that her book was merely “liberal drivel.” In the late 1980s, while he was in private practice, Conrad attacked Planned Parenthood in an Op-Ed titled “Planned Parenthood: A Radical, Pro-Abortion Fringe Group,” Conrad claimed in the Charlotte Observer piece that “Planned Parenthood knowingly kills unborn babies, not fetuses, as a method of ‘post-conception’ contraception, and to them that’s OK.”

Pretty strong words for someone who only now seems to be reinventing himself as the bland face of judicial impartiality. I suppose the FRC is embarrassed by such opinions, which is why Bill Saunders made no mention of them in this article. And perhaps it’s just as well that Robert Conrad DOESN’T get his confirmation hearing, because he just might end up embarrassing HIMSELF.