Conservative Group Planning Aggressive Attack On Obama’s Justice Nominees
Here’s something that signals an aggressive assault from the right on President Obama’s picks to run the Department of Justice.
In a highly unusual move designed to make it tougher for Senators to vote to confirm four of Obama’s picks for key sub-cabinet slots at Justice, the conservative Family Research Council is planning to “score” the votes of individual Senators on whether to confirm those nominees.
The Family Research Council’s planned assault concerns four nominees that are highly regarded on the left: Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli, Solicitor General Elena Kagan and Assistant Attorney General Dawn Johnsen, and Deputy Attorney General David Ogden. Ogden angers the right for his work representing porn organizations; Perrelli represented Michael Schiavo; Kagan opposed a measure letting military recruiters on campus; and Johnsen is a consistent supporter of abortion rights.
Senate votes on the four are expected this week. But the move could slow efforts to get them confirmed, because it could make GOP Senators hesitant to vote for them, lest their conservative “rating” by the group suffer.
The Council, which has never taken this step before, made its plans known in a letter to many GOP Senators that was obtained by our reporter, Ian Herbert. In the letter, the group urged Senators to “oppose” these picks and threatened: “If these nominations reach the Senate floor FRCAction will score this vote in our scorecard for the First Session of the 111th Congress.”
All in all, this signals a much tougher assault from the right on Obama’s Justice picks than many expected, so it’s really a battle to watch.
Update: Click here for a .pdf of the letter from FRC Action.
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Are you going to post the letter?
spose we could post the letter, yeah. stay tuned
I have to say that I did expect this. The judicial branch can be and has been key to particular goals of the religious right in coordination with the Federalist Society re establishing the means of solidifying desired policies/laws and overturning those deemed undesirable ideologically. That liberal judicial nominees wouldn’t be seriously challenged would have been the surprise.
Is Al Franken EVER going to get to take his seat in the Senate? How long can they hold this up? We need him.
That liberal judicial nominees wouldn’t be seriously challenged would have been the surprise.
Of course, that’s entirely true. But it’s going to be quite sumpin to hear the GOP’s response to our demand for “up and down” votes, like they demanded constantly – one after the other. If I heard or read one Repug when Bush was nominating people, I heard every single one of them, complain bitterly about the Democrats not letting the president have his way on judicial nominees.
Tena
Down the memory-hole, I’m afraid. And I expect most of the media crowd will only passingly refer to that recent past, then on they’ll go to transcription or airing of the contemporary (context-free) talking points. It will have to be the bloggers pushing that one up front, again.
Actually, that was entirely unfair. There have been and are a lot of good people working in the press too. My apologies for that silly exaggeration.
Wouldn’t this be classified as shooting your wad a bit early?
Wouldn’t this be classified as shooting your wad a bit early?
Yet another synonym for Republicans: premature ejaculators.
Oh My God! The Family Research Council! They have God and Jesus on their side. I’m scared! By the way, isn’t this the same Family Research Council that “lovingly” supported that great American Senator Larry Craig? And isn’t this the same Family Research Council that was so closely allied with Rev. Ted “Coke and ****” Haggard? What a bunch of nasty sniveling Southern unChristians!
Please feel free to post the letter from FRCAction.
P.S. We came out (yes I know, poor choice of words) against Larry Craig and asked him to resign.
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