Damn! This is being blamed on black people 13 months before it even happens! Can you believe this?
If you want a Google GMail account, FReepmail me.
They're going fast!
Posted on 10/14/2005 5:13:15 PM PDT by Stellar Dendrite
PHILADELPHIA - (KRT) - Americans "deserve better" than President Bush's "trust me" approach to the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said Friday, making his sharpest critique yet amid a right-wing revolt over the pick.
Santorum added, however, that he had not decided to oppose Miers and hoped to learn more about her views during confirmation hearings.
"There is a lot of heat. I think there is a lot of disappointment that the president didn't put someone up there with a record we could examine," Santorum said on a local radio show.
"It is what I term the president's second faith-based initiative, which is `trust me,'" Santorum said. "I think, candidly, we deserve better than that."
Until Friday's remarks and brief comments during a visit Thursday to Chambersburg, Pa., Santorum had mostly confined himself to saying he didn't know much about Miers. His reticence was a marked contrast to the criticism from other conservatives, such as Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. - who declared he would vote against her - and Trent Lott, R-Miss.
Santorum's views could be important because of his influence among Republican conservatives and because, as the party's No. 3 leader in the Senate, he has been closely tied to Bush's agenda. Santorum faces a tough re-election fight next year against Democratic State Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr. - who says he will wait until after the confirmation hearings to announce his position on Miers.
National conservative leaders across the country have excoriated Bush for picking Miers because she has no record on constitutional issues, either as a judge or an academic, that might reassure them she would hew to a philosophy of judicial restraint on the high court. Others have said they wanted to see indications Miers was opposed to abortion and gay marriage.
Miers, a Dallas corporate lawyer who was the president's personal attorney, is the White House counsel.
In the summer, Santorum was one of the earliest and most enthusiastic backers of Bush's nomination of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., convening a media conference call within hours of the announcement.
"When they nominated John Roberts, I was, `Sounds great,'" Santorum said Friday, in an interview after an anti-poverty forum at the Sunday Breakfast Mission in North Philadelphia. "I think we deserve to know more, we deserve to have someone ... who has a record - not a better record, just someone who has a record."
Santorum said he was not hearing a great deal from his political base about the pick, but, "I am not hearing a lot of enthusiasm. If I am hearing anything, it is negative."
Conservative leaders in Pennsylvania said reaction to Miers among the rank-and-file has ranged from puzzlement and disappointment to hope.
"It's difficult to be enthusiastic when her resume and philosophy are undefined," said Jeff Coleman, a former state representative from Indiana County now with a conservative think tank in Harrisburg, Pa.
"The president has earned respect with his choices on judges, but it's `trust but verify' on this one," Coleman said. "We'll all be leaning into the television to hear her answers on the first day of the confirmation hearings."
Michael Geer, president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, said most conservatives are taking a wait-and-see approach. "It's disappointing the nominee is not someone who's clear-cut," Geer said, but even if she were, there is no guarantee. "It's hard to predict, even with a track record," he said, noting that several Supreme Court nominees have confounded the presidents who appointed them.
In recent days, the White House has stressed Miers' born-again Christian faith in an effort to shore up conservative support for the nomination. She is a member of the Valley View Christian Church in Dallas, a congregation based on a strict reading of the Bible.
That approach has worked for William Devlin, an evangelical who heads the Urban Family Council in Philadelphia.
"Here is a woman who's been very public about her conversion to Christianity. Why can't conservatives trust her?" He said conservative critics sound like pessimistic "lemon suckers."
For his part, Santorum said he would base his decision on what he hears from Miers in the coming days.
"I am going to give Harriet Miers her day in court, if you will, before the committee, and have an opportunity to talk with her and give her every opportunity to let her show us what kind of judicial philosophy she has - and whether she is in fact the kind of person we want on the court," Santorum said on the radio program.
ping
ping
The bottom is really starting to fall out on this Miers nomination. Last one out, turn off the lights.
It is what I term the president's second faith-based initiative, which is `trust me,'" Santorum said. "I think, candidly, we deserve better than that."
"Too bad you supported the RINO in '04 and are now going to lose your seat because of it."
This time Santorum, the next time the other RINO-PA representative--the Scottish law expert.
Winning my support back.
LOL...need I say anything?
If I lived in PA I would be fighting for his defeat. Unless he wants to sign on to a new conservative motto, something like...No RINO's Never Again, for any reason.
Gosh, and I though that Santorum knew what it felt like to campaign for someone, then have him basically stab him in the back....
I guess not.
Santorum pissed his seat away and now he is trying to drag others down with him. I wish Santorum the best. But, he is in for a tough fight and needs all the friends he can find, yet he burns bridges.
Sans-scr*tum is about as republican as michelle mooron
FYI...
Nice pair Rick...try to be that way consistently please.
Ping....thought you would be interested in this...
Defeat Santorum so Bob Casey gets elected? Sorry, I'm going to vote for Santorum. If Specter croaks, Ed Rendell will replace him with a Democrat, probably from Philadelphia. Rendell is very unpopular in Western PA. If Santorum distances himself from Bush on immigration and out of control spending, he might have a chance to win. I don't want two 'Rats representing PA in the Senate so I'm voting Santorum.
Brownback already declared that he would vote against her, period, without even a hearing?
Hope not. Didn't think he was that much of a moron.
Dan
Labelling Santorum a 'Top' GOP senator is a title open to debate...
This man is irking my last nerve.
Specter likely won't live to see the end of his term, he has cancer, and looks like he's within a year or two of giving up the ghost.
We had our chance to get rid of him last year, and guess who was instrumental and decisive in making sure that a true conservative - Pat Toomey - lost?
Brownback did NOT say he was voting against Meiers.
You want judicial revolution well you know … we all want to fix the Law
The Left ignores the Constitution well you know … Janice would stick right in their craw
But when you go hating our President Georgie Bush
We’re just gonna kick you hard right in the tush!!!
We say Harriet’s gonna be … all RIGHT … all RIGHT … all RIGHT
You say you want a paper tray-ay-ail well you know … we all want to know her views
You don’t want to see em-i-na-tions well you know … we don’t need any more Dave Soooooooouz
But when you attack the good lady from S M U
You go from the high road right into the doggie dooooooooooooooooooooooo
We say Harriet’s gonna be … all RIGHT … all RIGHT … all RIGHT
You say you don’t trust Dingy’s Par-ar-ty well you know … we despise the dirty rats
You don’t trust our team in the Se-e-nate well you know … It’s so hard to herd those caaaats
But when you go blaming the Prez for the Senate louts
All that I can tell you is just … COUNT ME OUT!!
We say Harriet’s gonna be … all RIGHT … all RIGHT … all RIGHT
You say you don’t know much about Mi-i-ers well you know … we all want to hear her talk
Your not sure if she’s got the qual-al-als well you know … she’ll have to walk the walk
But when you just want her to quit and shout her down
We’re ain’t gonna take you more real than BOZO THE CLOWN
We say Harriet’s gonna be … all RIGHT … all RIGHT … all RIGHT
America is not a Theocracy! Whether the President nominates an Evangelical, a Catholic, or a Jew is neither here no there so long as the nominee is a strict Constitutionalist. Playing up Miers' religion is not only hypocritical when the RNC chided the Dems for mentioning Roberts' Catholicism, but it also sounds like there's nothing else in her resume. /broken record mode
Damn! This is being blamed on black people 13 months before it even happens! Can you believe this?
If you want a Google GMail account, FReepmail me.
They're going fast!
Don't know much about the politics of that state; but I thought there was a primary race where Spectre won over Toomey.. Or was Toomey aced out through some kind of backroom shenanigans ... ?
He's channeling me, that sonofabitch.
Yes, indeed. The comments are more interesting than the article.
Would?!
He's finalized that decision?
Can someone confirm-or deny-this?
Toomey was near even and gaining ground... then the President intervened and declared Specter to be his man, influencing just enough voters for Specter to win. Otherwise we'd have a solidly conservative Senator Toomey as the junior senator from PA.
Remeber - I told you I liked Santorum. ANd he's hitting on main complaint - the people deserve a transparent process.
Seems to me it would be difficult to resist W.H. pressure given what we know of their tactics currently, even to the extent of sending people to N.H. to intimidate possible '08 conservative challengers. Something they never do to the RINO's or Libs.
If Santorum is responsible in some manner for ending this, he is deserving of returned "conservative" support.
But, right now, I still fall under the line of thought these people are making noises of discontent to placate the base and will vote for her anyway. We'll see.
Did Santorum vote for Ginsburg?
What Senator in his right mind would want to tie his or her political future to Miers?
That is what I am struggling with too.
Casey will be bad news for us if he gets in. I just wish our alternatives were better.
http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/1789701.html
" White House Acknowledges Putting Pressure on Brownback"
It will be because he's running against a Democrat who's both pro-life AND pro-gun, in addition to being the most politically adept member of the Casey clan.
It will be because the paltry number of Hispanic Pentecostals that have drifted over to the Republican Party-and which he has assiduously cultivated-do not even begin to equal the number of hard core, conservative Republicans that are outraged over his open borders stance.
But most importantly of all, it will be because he decided to enthusiastically-and without the slightest bit of hesistation-stick a shiv into his fellow conservatives, by backing Arlen Specter and George W. Bush over Pat Toomey.
Exactly.
Truth, or hype?
It's too late....Santorum has already become a GOP country-clubber and will have to answer to PA conservatives.
yep...and GWB is doing it again by supporting super RINO linc chaffee over a more conservative primary challenger.
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