Posted on 10/10/2005 5:06:33 PM PDT by RWR8189
WASHINGTON — Focus on the Family founder James Dobson will take to the airwaves Wednesday and Thursday to clarify what information he got from the White House or other sources about U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers.
Dobson has faced a barrage of media attention in recent days because he has tentatively endorsed Miers just as other conservatives or evangelical Christian leaders have expressed doubts about her qualifications and concern about the lack of a paper trial outlining her views.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have said they might call Dobson to testify at Miers' upcoming confirmation hearings because of his statements implying he has confidential information about the nominee.
Last week, Dobson told listeners to his Christian-oriented radio program: "When you know some of the things I know — that I probably shouldn't know — that take me in this direction, you'll know why I've said with fear and trepidation (that) I believe Harriet Miers will be a good justice."
Dobson said he spoke to President Bush's lead political adviser, Karl Rove, prior to the Miers nomination, although he has not said what they discussed.
That has raised concern among some U.S. senators, including Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who say the White House should tell lawmakers whatever Dobson was told.
Focus on the Family spokesman Paul Hetrick said Monday that Dobson plans to address the Miers nomination again in a two-part broadcast scheduled to air on Wednesday and Thursday.
"What he knows about her so far he likes, and enough to endorse her," Hetrick said. "Like all of us, he'd like to know more."
He said Dobson is looking forward to hearing Miers testify at the upcoming hearings, but that the committee has not yet asked him to appear.
On Sunday, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said on the ABC network's "This Week" broadcast that if there are "backroom assurances" or "backroom deals" about how a nominee is going to vote, "I think that's a matter that ought to be known by the judiciary committee and the American people."
Questions over what Dobson knows prompted the judiciary committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., to ask Miers last week whether she had told anyone how she would vote on any specific cases. She reportedly told Leahy: "I will be my own person. I will be independent. Nobody has the authority or right or ability to tell how I'm going to vote."
Dobson is a longtime opponent of abortion and has said he hopes the Supreme Court soon will reverse its landmark 1973 decision that cemented abortion rights. He said he believes Miers is against abortion, but in last week's broadcast added: "if I have made a mistake here, I will never forget it. The blood of those babies who will die will be on my hands to a degree."
Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family is one of the most prominent Christian media empires in the world, with Dobson's regular radio commentaries aired on 3,500 outlets in the United States.
Hetrick said Dobson has received more than 100 media interview requests since he offered a tentative endorsement of Miers while other conservatives expressed skepticism.
"He feels that enough time has passed, and enough has been said in the media that he feels he can make some additional comments to any who are interested, especially to our constituents," Hetrick said.
"Our constituents, just as everyone else in the country, are consumers of news. He would want them to have perhaps a more complete understanding of what they may be reading in the news."
sprengelmeyerm@shns.com
Focus on the Family broadcast information can be found at: www.family.org/fmedia/radiolog/index.cfm
He should have waited til ratings week - this show is gonna trump Rush !!!
I think that explains it!
I still can't believe he said it in the first place. What was he thinking?
He was "talking out of his @$$" about confidential information and now his writers have finally fabricated a 'spin' to tell everyone.
A hack; maybe a christian (lowercase intentional, for him) hack, but definitely a hack.
First Law of dealing with the media: always say "No comment!"
"When you know some of the things I know — that I probably shouldn't know — that take me in this direction, you'll know why I've said with fear and trepidation (that) I believe Harriet Miers will be a good justice."
It almost sounds like Dr. Dobson knows something about Miers' past.
Well either she's pro-choice or anti-abortion...it can't be both ways.
Conservatives are having a fit because they're not sure she's pro-life, liberals are having a fit because they think she's anti-abortion.
When they start talking about calling folks to testify about a nominees views, then you know you're getting into "borking" territory.
oh get a life!!!!!!!!! Dobson is TRUE BLUE and a marvelous Christian!!!
Its not that cut and dry.
One could easily be pro-abortion and anti-Roe, or anti-abortion but pro-Roe depending on judicial philosophy.
I tend to believe Miers is anti-abortion, but I have no idea how she would rule on Roe...
He was probably talking out his ass to puff himself up and sound like a bigshot VIP.
Pat Robertson has the same problem. They aren't on the inside, but they don't want anyone to know it.
Pardon me miss, but I think your slip is showing.
Was a dumb thing to say, unless he was playing the Feinstein game... trying to scare Dems away from her.
Dobson is TRUE BLUE and a marvelous Christian!!!
I lose track. Is he the Christian Right's #1 or #2...?
Robertson will always be #1.
The words in bold are *really* strange. Would someone please explain what he means??
I'm guessing that he talked to her pastor and concluded that she is a good Christian. I'd like to see the Dems try to make something out of that.
I love Dobson, but this was one stupid mistake.
So, he as much as admits that he has no new information. But the press, desperate to divide the conservative base, will twist any little piece of BS it can.
The man got his info from Pukin Dog
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