Posted on 11/15/2004 1:04:53 PM PST by hinterlander
Republican senators who support Sen. Arlen Specter's bid to chair the Judiciary Committee could face retribution from disgruntled conservative and Christian voters, warned Dr. James Dobson in an interview Monday with HUMAN EVENTS.
Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family Action, a political group he organized to help re-elect President Bush, said Specter is frantically trying to save his spot atop the Judiciary Committee after suggesting Bush shouldn't bother nominating pro-life judges.
Specter has since distanced himself from his November 3 comments, but the protests against him haven't diminished. For the second straight weekend, he appeared on Sunday morning news programs trying to allay fears voiced by activists like Dobson.
"It may not be possible to derail Senator Specter," Dobson conceded to HUMAN EVENTS, "but if they [Republican senators] don't do that, I think it ought to be very clear that when the senator reneges on his promise to do the right thing, it's going to be remembered."
Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee are expected to meet with Specter this week, which will be followed by a secret vote taken in January to elect a chairman. Their offices have been inundated with phone calls protesting Specter's possible promotion.
GOP-imposed term limits are forcing Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah) to step down as the committee's chairman. Next in line is Sen. Chuck Grassley (R.-Iowa), who would rather lead the Finance Committee than Judiciary, leaving Specter with the most seniority.
"He's been out there for the last week on every show that would invite him," Dobson said of the Pennsylvania senator. "He's been trying to save his chairmanship by bobbing and weaving and telling us that he didn't mean what he said when he said what he meant."
Dobson has used his radio program, which reaches 7 million listeners per week, to rail against Specter's possible ascension. Other conservative and Christian interest groups are protesting as well, including a scheduled demonstration Tuesday at the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.).
"We're certainly going to do everything we can to let people know that Senator Specter not only threatens the court, but he is also the champion of stem-cell research and he is opposed to protection of marriage within the Constitution," Dobson said. "This man is going to be in an extremely powerful position to oppose most of what President Bush was elected to do. That is irritating a large number of people."
Dobson said Specter owes his victory to Bush, who chose to campaign with him instead of his more conservative Republican primary opponent, Rep. Pat Toomey. Specter narrowly beat Toomey by a little more than 17,000 votes in the April primary.
"He was very clear about what his intentions are," Dobson said in reference to Specter's November 3 remarks. "It's not only the court, he stands in opposition to just about everything the President ran on in terms of the moral and social agenda. How arrogant is that?"
Robert B. Bluey is Assistant Editor for HUMAN EVENTS
If you love me, you will keep my Commandments
-Jesus
Don't I know it; some of us are STILL waiting on those polls you all claimed that showed Keyes making HUGE gains.
It's certainly not the end of the discussion; I posted what has been quoted over and over by the talking heads, including Michael Barone, Brit Hume and Charles Krauthammer. Take it up with them -- you know, THOSE liberals.
Just so we have the record straight, are you claiming that the born-again category didn't count under the "Vote by Religion" category?
What did you do, Howlin?
(joke: this thread is now in the Smokey Backroom).
Didn't agree, I guess. :-)
Yes - it was Specter's former campaign manager who "we're told" is responsible for those signs.
Some former someone - just took it upon himself to make 'em. All alone. His own money too, I guess. Plausible deniability?
You might want to link those, eh?
Otherwise, I'll wait expectantly for the apology.
But I won't hold my breath. I enjoy life.
I'd love to link them, but none of the Keyes people every produced them, despite being asked to repeatedly.
Nice try.
As you know, I meant linking to me claiming I had polling that showed Keyes making huge gains.
If you can't find them, you owe me an apology.
And I guarantee you won't find them, because I never did any such thing.
Now how can she do that? Any time anyone said anything you didn't like, you had the thread pulled.
Had the thread pulled?
Sorry, I'm not a moderator.
They have been betrayed and disappointed over and over again. If the party can't get it right this time, with the nomination of Conservative Supreme Court Judges who are willing to overturn Roe vs. Wade, for instance, many of those same conservatives will lose faith in the party. They will begin to see it as a waste of time and effort, and will stop bothering to donate and work for candidates who deliver empty promises.
Such a reaction is something Party leaders would be wise to consider before responding to the demands of their constituency.
As for Krauthammer, he's an urbanite and an elitist and I stopped listening to him or reading his stuff when he went off the deep end, stark raving mad over Gibson's Passion. I have since found out that he joined forces to try to 1) elect McVain and 2) helped lead the intellectual argument that has resulted in an turning over some of the Balkans to the Islamists.
I don't know much about Michael Barone. Isn't he an investment writer? He and Dobson would get along, because Dobson is one of the shrewdest, most hardheaded businessmen I've ever seen.
I would like to point out that that day with those conservatives (at least Kraut calls himself that), there were no evangelicals to be found at Fox.
None to be found at Weekly Standard. None at National Review. No evangelical gets a fair shake in the publications, unless they own them, like Dobson. They're assumed to be beyond the pale.
And that's why they are defensive.
Oh, if I don't find one, I'm sure somebody can. But I did find this......and guess what, it's posted by YOU:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1264715/posts
Keyes continues making inroads on the South Side of Chicago - Rally speech transcript
*Snicker*
(Nice try on the "me" thing, but I said "you all." Now don't try to weasel out; you ran those threads and could have corrected it when it was posted!)
Maybe not, but you sure are good with that abuse button!
Baloney! What is wrong with you? I twisted NO numbers. You don't like the fact that 23% of the people who answered the Exit Poll questions, identified themselves as members of the Religious Right. Well, too bad!
>>>>your own linked showed that they voted in no higher numbers than any other demographic group.
Open your eyes for once. The Religious Right as a voting block accounted for 23% of all voters in this last election. As an example, "Latinos" made up a mere 8%. You need to take a class in basic statistics.
>>>>I provided you with what has been posted online and on this forum ....
You provided NO data, NO info, NO nothing to back up your assertions. OTOH. You have provided a lot of empty rhetoric.
Michael Barone was the most accurate "numbers cruncher" in 2000 and 2004; on Election Day when it became apparent that the "numbers" we saw in the late afternoon were obviously crap (probably put out by the Kerry campaign), Fox threw the numbers away and Barone went to work with a team at the Fox studios in D.C.; he was the very first to call Ohio for Bush.
You're making a big mistake blowing off Krauthammer.
Nice misdirection.
Fact is, you made it up. Just admit it and go on.
How would you know? Are you a mod?
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