Posted on 07/05/2005 7:44:32 PM PDT by nj26
The White House and the Senate Republican leadership are pushing back against pressure from some of their conservative allies about the coming Supreme Court nomination, urging them to stop attacking Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales as a potential nominee and to tone down their talk of a culture war.
In a series of conference calls on Tuesday and over the last several days, Republican Senate aides encouraged conservative groups to avoid emphasizing the searing cultural issues that social conservatives see at the heart of the court fight, subjects like abortion, public support for religion and same-sex marriage, participants said.
Instead, these participants, who insisted on anonymity to avoid exclusion from future calls, said the aides - including Barbara Ledeen of the Senate Republican Conference and Eric Ueland, chief of staff to Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader - emphasized themes that had been tested in polls, including a need for a fair and dignified confirmation process.
Mr. Ueland acknowledged that he and others had been working almost since the vacancy occurred last Friday with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's resignation to persuade conservative activists to steer clear of divisive language.
"Every contact we have with these folks is 'stay on message, stay on purpose,' " Mr. Ueland said. "The extremism of language, if there is to be any, should be demonstrably on the other side. The hysteria and the foaming at the mouth ought to come from the left."
In other calls, emissaries from the office of Harriet Miers, the White House counsel, are urging conservatives to stop discussing individual nominees, especially Mr. Gonzales, whose views on abortion and affirmative action are viewed with wariness by some conservatives. Steve Schmidt, a White House spokesman working on the confirmation, joined some calls, participants said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Time to step up the rhetoric against Gonzelez.
Here, I fixed the title for you.
It's a good way to lose votes.
If both extreme right wingers and lefties are agreeing on something, then maybe it is worth listening to. I personally dont care for him.
Yep, the GOP is going sackless again. Not my problem and I don't adjust my views based on GOP leadership whining. Congress needs to be gutted and refilled with decent people, not the current batch of slugs infecting D.C.
there is absolutely no evidence he is going to be nominated and yet some here are going absolutely appoplectic....some have become absolutely unhinged on baseless speculation
Frist Wimps out again. And I thought Trent Lott was a wimp?
When the GOP gets a real leader in the Senate, the Rats will run for the hills. Until then, they smell blood in the water and will not stop.
where is the evidence of that.
you people absolutely cant wait to be sold out and stabbed in the back.
That's their problem right there. Clintonite governing by reading the opinion polls isn't leadership. Reagan used his principles, not polls. That's where he went right and where the GOP is screwing up.
And who might those "extreme right wingers" be?
The usual MO. Pro-lifers are welcome to work the phones, work election day, send in campaign donations...but when they expect to finally see their issue addressed, they're told to go to the back of the bus and shut up. This may be the time they wise up.
Bush can solve all the problems by naming Michael Luttig tomorrow.
Bush ougtha not name anyone until after August.
Let's all do what we can to figuratively shoot this trial balloon down!
"Pro-lifers are welcome to work the phones, work election day, send in campaign donations...but when they expect to finally see their issue addressed, they're told to go to the back of the bus and shut up."
Pro-lifers are in the same situation with the GOP that African-Americans face with the Democrats. Until there is a credible threat of the vote going elsewhere, nobody listens. Hence, the Bush Admin's endless pandering to the Latino community, while pro-life voters are ignored.
I tend to agree with this statement. As long as the left continues to hyperventilate, we continue to gain ground if we control our rhetoric. Conservatives have been burned on multiple occasions with court appointments (Kennedy, Souter, etc.). But I'm willing to grant that there are those in the administration with a vantage point to see further down the political road than I. I'm willing to withhold judgement for now.
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