Posted on 11/05/2004 6:28:01 AM PST by Always Right
Specter Retreats: Specter denied yesterday that he threatened Bush on judge nominees. Don’t buy it. Specter knows that he got too arrogant and stepped into a hornets nest. Specter’s statement that, “I have never and would never apply any litmus test on the abortion issue,” just is not true. Specter has made it clear that he considers Roe v. Wade as Constitutional as the First Amendment. When the rubber hits the road, this is a litmus test for Specter. A few token votes to save his behind doesn’t change that a bit. Never forget what he did to Bork. In words and actions, Sen. Specter is no different than President NON-elect Kerry.
The BUZZ on this issue was outstanding. Discussions were all over talk radio, cable TV, and the internet. Several reports of phone calls flooding Senators offices were made. Reportedly, Sen. Frist grilled Sen. Specter on this and told him flatly that the Judiciary Chairmanship is not guaranteed. Folks, this is winnable. We can not let this issue die.
Today’s goal is to STRATEGIZE. Things we know:
1. Sen. Hatch must resign the Chairmanship because GOP rules forbid him to hold it for more than 8 years.
2. Sen. Grassley is next in line, but because he is Finance Chairman he is forbidded to have both.
3. Sen. Specter is next in line, followed by Sen. Kyl who would make an excellent Chairman.
4. Seniority on Committee gives priority, but it still must be voted on. We need to find out the when, what, where, and how behind this vote.
There is an effort to try to persuade Grassley to resign his Finance Chairmanship and take the Judiciary. I support this. It’s a clean way to resolve this without changing the rules or ruffling of too many feathers. But having Grassley give up the coveted Finance Chair is a big if.
Let’s keep in mind the real goal here too as we strategize. We want Bush to appoint good conservative judges who will not go along with the judicial activism that currently runs rabid in our courts. There are two obstacles to this.
1. Democrat Filibusters.
2. Specter as Chairman of Judiciary.
The next 60 will determine how big the obstacles will be. In my opinion, what happens over the next 60 days are the most critical. We need to establish a clean path so Bush’s appointed judges can get voted on the full floor of the Senate. We must keep up the pressure on our Senators. If we let it die now, nothing will be done and we will have lost the best opportunity of our lives to make a difference in our Courts.
There is a preliminary petition at that is being worked on here. Please review it. Pro-Life Petition to Block Sen. Arlen Specter.
We don't need Specter on the Judicial committee at all because we don't need Senators there who will apply a litmus test to nominees nor Senators who have already demonstrated exceedingly poor judgment on past nominees (Bork, who else??).
Please don't stop with just the chairmanship issue. Specter can still potentially block nominees as a member of the judicial committee, simply by refusing to vote them out of committee to the floor of the Senate. If all the Democrats join him in such a vote, they will have the majority of the committee voting against the President's nominee.
We do indeed have the votes to break the filibusters, and the first line of action you'll see will be to work off the stalled circuit court nominations.
The RATS no longer have the votes.
Grassley has already said NO to this absurd proposal. It's reflective of how little understanding there is of the United States Senate and the jurisdiction of the various committees.
Who are the 5 Dem crossovers? Not arguing with you, just wanna know. Also have you accounted for possible defectors like Chaffee, Snowe, Specter?
That task will be easier without Specter as chair.
Senator Bill Frist
461 DIRKSEN SENATE OFF
ICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510 (202) 224-3344
FAX: (202)228-1264
Toll Free Number for Capitol: 1-877-762-8762
Nashville:
Office of Senator Bill Frist
28 White Bridge Road
Suite 211
Nashville, TN 37205
615-352-9411
615-352-9985 (fax)
Chattanooga
James Building
735 Broad Street, Suite 701
Chattanooga, TN 37402
423-756-2757
423-756-5313 (fax)
Jackson
200 East Main Street
Suite 111
Jackson, TN 38301
731-424-9655
731-424-8322 (fax)
Kingsport/Tri-Cities
10368 Wallace Alley Street
Suite 7
Kingsport, TN 37663
423-323-1252
423-323-0358 (fax)
Knoxville
Twelve Oaks Executive Park
Building One, Suite 170
Knoxville, TN 37919
865-602-7977
865-602-7979 (fax)
Memphis
5100 Poplar Avenue
Suite 514
Memphis, TN 38137
901-683-1910
901-683-3610 (fax)
Current Senate Judiciary Committee:
(R)Orrin G. Hatch
CHAIRMAN, UTAH
(d)Patrick J. Leahy
RANKING DEMOCRATIC MEMBER, VERMONT
(R)Charles E. Grassley
IOWA
(d)Edward M. Kennedy
MASSACHUSETTS
(R)Arlen Specter
PENNSYLVANIA
(d)Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
DELAWARE
(R)Jon Kyl
ARIZONA
(d)Herbert Kohl
WISCONSIN
(R)Mike DeWine
OHIO
(d)Dianne Feinstein
CALIFORNIA
(R)Jeff Sessions
ALABAMA
(d)Russell D. Feingold
WISCONSIN
(R)Lindsey Graham
SOUTH CAROLINA
(d)Charles E. Schumer
NEW YORK
(R)Larry Craig
IDAHO
(d)Richard J. Durbin
ILLINOIS
(R)Saxby Chambliss
GEORGIA
(d)John Edwards NORTH CAROLINA
(R)John Cornyn TEXAS
Background Info:
Washington Times - 26 December 2003 - Conservatives Work to Deflect Specter
Washington Times - 18 November 2003 - The Specter Problem
Human Events - 18 August 2003 - Will Specter Chair Judiciary?
Philadelphia Inquirer - 4 November 2004 - Caution: Specter says President has no mandate
Washington Times - 4 November 2004 - All Eyes on Specter
Specter's "Clarification" of his Threats to Pres. Bush's Judicial Nominees
Actual Transcript of News Conference Wherein Specter Threatens Bush's Judicial Nominees
The current make-up of the committee is 10 R's and 9 D's. If Specter votes with the RATs, the R's on the committee are outnumbered.
But 40 Dems will block all pro-life judges, just as Specter said.
Not if Frist changes the rules - which will be easier with 4 new R Senators.
This is the silliest cause I've seen on FR since the contrail people used to come by.
Then I suggest that you just step aside. The rest of us don't take Specter's duplicity lightly.
And President Bush's re-election is impossible, given the massing of the forces of evil against him, so why even try?
Their passage will prove nothing but what I said- that those who are not obviously pro-life or otherwise popularly rejectable will no longer be filibustered.
Though I'm glad that such moderates will be approved now, I'm going to be ROFL if anyone makes the claim that it shows there is no need to end the cloture rule for nominations.
again, no understanding, no one bothers to read the facts in previous posts.
The committee will no longer be 10-9 GOP. With the added majority, the committee ratios change. The new Judiciary committee will be 11-9 or 10-8.
Specter's vote will not matter, but he will not oppose the President's nominees anyway.
He'd be friggin awesome.
Have you read that article?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1173673/posts
STOP SPECTER NOW--WE NEED YOU:
Liberal Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, who bailed on the Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork in 1987, is slated to become the new chairman of the Judiciary Committee unless you act now. We need you to call your Republican senator and make your views on this heard asap. Click here for the numbers of your senator(s), or if you don't have a Republican senator, call Sen. Bill Frist's office at 202 224 3344.
That task will be nearly impossible if he is made chair.
Specter has made it very clear in his writings that he believes the Constitution is a "living document" that must be adapted to conform to its times (that is, to the personal opinions of the liberal elite) and that a justice who is unwilling to implement this progessive, acvitist agenda is not fit to sit on the SCOTUS. That's why he "borked" Bork and despises Scalia.
Specter is a tough nut. If he gets the chairmanship no one should expect him to roll over and help get conservative justices approved. The risk is too grave that he will dig in his heels and become as obstructionist as Daschle ever was, but from within the Senate Republican leadership itself. On the floor, he'll form common cause with Chaffee, Snowe, Collins and possibly McCain to cripple all efforts to restore SCOTUS to its proper role as a court, away from its current majority's destructive tendencies as a superlegislature of liberal life peers of the realm.
The RATS held the filibuster when we started with just 51 votes, because there would have been tremendous retaliation from Daschle if they had not stayed in line. But fundamentally, they did not want to filibuster -- they knew it ran against Senate tradition and similarly felt it was risky politics.
That list of Senators who will no longer filibuster includes Democratic moderates such as Lieberman, Nelson of Nebraska, Pryor of Arkansas, Lincoln of Arkansas, Johnson of South Dakota, Bingaman of New Mexico, Bayh of Indiana, Baucus of Montana.
Next, look at the freshmen RATS facing re-election in 2006. Do you think they want to suffer the same fate as Daschle, and being seen as obstructionists? Therefore, at minimum, you'll see Nelson of Florida, Carper of Delaware and perhaps others fall into line.
That gives us nearly a dozen RATS to pick off. As I said, getting to 60 from a base of 55 is a lot easier than getting there from 51.
Yes, THAT is something that actually matters. It'll be interesting to see if any of the people frothing over this nonsense realize that there won't be any known pro-life judges approved without changing that rule.
Just as Specter said.
Though nominations can be sent to the floor by a majority vote of the Senate anyway, you're right that it would be good to add another conservative to the committee to ensure a majority.
There's been no duplicity by Specter in this case, that's what's so delightfully silly.
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