Posted on 11/05/2004 1:01:45 PM PST by cpforlife.org
National Right to Life URGENT CONGRESSIONAL ALERT
This is an urgent congressional alert from National Right to Life in Washington, D.C., issued Friday, November 5, 2004, at 3 p.m. ET. For updates, go to our website at http://www.nrlc.org. Please forward this e-mail to any appropriate lists!
Help Prevent Arlen Specter From Becoming Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee!
It is likely that President Bush will have the opportunity to nominate two or more justices of the U.S. Supreme Court during the next four years. Pro-abortion advocacy groups are vowing to do everything in their power to block the President's nominees in the Senate. There has not been a vacancy on the Court for over 10 years, but in recent weeks the press has reported that Chief Justice William Rehnquist is seriously ill.
When President Bush nominates a man or woman to the Supreme Court, that nomination goes first to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which conducts hearings and votes on the nomination. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee will be crucial in shepherding the President's nominees to successful confirmation votes in the committee and in the full Senate.
But what if the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee was himself undercutting President Bush's nominee -- or even actively opposing confirmation of the nominee?
Soon, the Republican members of the Judiciary Committee must decide on who they want as their chairman. Ordinarily, this job would go to the most-senior Republican committee member who does not chair some other major committee. However, in this case, that senior committee member is Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).
Specter would be a disaster as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Senator Specter has a strongly pro-abortion record, and he is one of the leading champions of human cloning. In 1987, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, Specter played a key role in defeating President Reagan's nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Robert Bork, who was on record in opposition to Roe v. Wade. In 1995, Specter briefly sought the Republican presidential nomination on a pro-abortion platform. In January 2001, Specter complained on a TV program that some nominees for the Supreme Court were reluctant to take clear positions on Roe v. Wade, and he said that he might have to start withholding his support in such cases.
On November 3, 2004, the day after the election, Specter told reporters that he considers Roe v. Wade "inviolate," and indicated that he believes that nominees who do not express support for that ruling cannot be confirmed. Asked if he would support President Bush's judicial nominees, Specter replied, "That obviously depends upon the president's judicial nominees."
On November 4, those remarks were widely reported in the news media as a "warning" to the White House. The same day, Specter issued a statement saying that he had been warning of possible filibusters by Democrats -- but he did not pledge to support President Bush's nominations to the Supreme Court.
Senator Specter assumes he has a lock on the job -- but actually, he does not have an entitlement to the Judiciary Committee chairmanship.
If another Republican member of the committee decides to challenge Specter and gains the support of a majority of Republican members of the committee, then the decision would go before the entire Republican conference, which is the caucus of all of the Republican senators who will serve in the new Congress that convenes in January. In that case, the 55 Republican senators would decide who will be chairman by a secret ballot.
Thus, ultimately, every Republican senator can have a voice on who holds the powerful gavel at the Judiciary Committee.
ACTION ITEMS:
Please take these three actions immediately, and urge others to do the same:
1. If one or both of the U.S. senators who will represent your state in the new Congress is a Republican, contact his or her office immediately with this message: "Senator Specter must not become chairman of the Judiciary Committee. We urge Senator ______ to support any other Republican member of the Judiciary Committee to become chairman -- anyone but Arlen Specter." The offices of continuing senators can be contacted by telephone through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121, and appropriate e-mail messages can be sent to them via the National Right to Life Legislative Action Center at http://www.capwiz.com/nrlc/home/ Please use both phone AND e-mail.
[NOTE: We will post contact information for the seven newly elected Republican senators on our website's Legislative Action Center as soon as it becomes available. For some of these, local campaign offices may still be open and taking messages. The seven newly elected Republican senators are Mel Martinez (Fl.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), David Vitter (La.), Richard Burr (NC), Tom Coburn (Ok.), Jim DeMint (SC), and John Thune (SD).]
2. Call the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tn.) at 202-224-3344, with a message along these lines: "Senator Arlen Specter MUST NOT become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He would use that position to protect Roe v. Wade and to advance abortion and human cloning. We urge you to do everything in your power to ensure that a pro-life Republican becomes chairman, not Specter." You can also send Sen. Frist a fax at 202-228-1264, and send him an e-mail using the webform at the National Right to Life Legislative Action Center at http://www.capwiz.com/nrlc/mail/?id=540&type=CO&state=TN
[NOTE: The majority leader does NOT have the power to simply appoint a chairman for the Judiciary Committee. But Senator Frist can be influential in guiding the Republican senators collectively to solve this urgent problem.]
3. If you receive a response from the office of any Republican senator, or see a statement on the matter by your senator in the news media, please forward it to the Federal Legislation Department at National Right to Life at Legfederal@aol.com, or by fax to 202-347-3668, or by phone to 202-626-8820.
SPECIAL ACTION ITEM:
If your Republican senator is already a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he can be especially influential in deciding who the new chairman will be. Please make every effort to encourage other constituents to contact the Republican committee members who are listed below. (NOTE: One or more NEW Republican senators may be appointed to the committee later this month, but it is not yet known who they will be.)
Orrin Hatch (Utah) Charles Grassley (Iowa) Jon Kyl (Az.) Mike DeWine (Ohio) Jeff Sessions (Al.) Lindsey Graham (SC) Larry Craig (Id.) Saxby Chambliss (Ga.) John Cornyn (Tx.)
this is a good site
http://www.notspecter.com/index.php?p=5
NO SPECTER
Jim and John,
Special PING!
If there is any way you can PING EVERYONE in Freeperville thhat would be great.
Thanks for all you do!
God bless
Please let me know if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.
Yes! Keep this going until Specter is stopped!
My Dad says they vote next Wednesday. Please contact GOP Judiciary Committee members to express your disapproval of Specter (site includes Judiciary Members' (GOP) phone numbers):
http://stopspecter.savethegop.com/index.php?page=act
That has excellent information on how the process works. The only thing I didn't see is how soon this happens. I heard one report that caucus is scheduled in the next couple of weeks. If that is true, we need to stay on this heavy over the next few weeks.
In 1976 my girlfriend told me she was pregnant, I was 20 she was 19. Several of our friends suggested an abortion and literature was given to us by several adults. I have friend and a fraternity brother who is now a Priest that asked me and my girlfriend if we ever prayed..really PRAYED. I said "yes" but I was a fool and he knew it. He asked us to drive to his parents house for the weekend and we did. He was the eldest of three kids and we enjoyed his family so much. Later on Sunday his mom and dad told us how their son (my friend) was unexpected and they were just our age and unmarried.
My son's name is Parker...his mother and I are still married...thank God for that family...Thank God.
In my opinion, Spectrer becoming Judiciary chair is similar to Bush losing the election!
Successful judicial nominations are a large part of what we fought for!
Sounds like we need to find one of the members of the committee to challenge him. Kyl is the obvious choice given he is next in line and a good conservative.
Terrific story, you have a great friend there.
My son's Middle name is Joseph...same as my friend's first name
what does this say about Senator Specter?
I just called Sen Frist, but low and behold, he wasn't in the office today. Still, I left a message that I was concerned about Sen. SPECTRE being the chair of the judicial comm.
I guess it was luck, even after we married I was pretty stupid but My wife stuck it through. I "grew up" about 10 years after we got married and accepted Jesus into my heart over those 10 years...the longest journey is from your heart to your head. My wife is an angel...now when I think about it I get pretty choked up.
Just got on computer so forgive me if I am repeating something that has already been posted.
I listened to Laura Ingraham's show this morning and she spent almost the whole 3 hours talking about this. She said we need to "Bork Specter", since Specter was instrumental in keeping Bork out, and Borking became a verb.
Her website is all over this also. She is good friends with John Thune, and is going through him for information and to send messages to the Senate. She was telling her listeners to do the same thing we are doing, calling and faxing and e-mailing all Senators. She suggests if you have a Democrat Senator, that you call them and tell them that you don't want any filibustering otherwise what happened to Tom Daschle, could happen to them.
I wonder if there are any lib Dem war rooms or websites up to SUPPORT Specter, as a last ditch effort to hold the line and keep the Supreme Court moderate and pro-Roe v. Wade?
Good question! I don't know, a I for one don't go on any DU web sites. Maybe there is another poster that has been visiting one of those sites and can let us know if they are even "talking" about this. I have a feeling they are still licking their wounds.
I just heard Sean Hannity mention Lincoln Chafee's name as a senator we need to keep in mind. I know that before the election, he announced to the world that he was NOT going to vote for Bush.
s
Can you all do a RECALL? How does that work there in PA?
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