GOP Senators Targeted In Fight Over Judicial Nominee

GOP Senators Targeted in Fight Over Judicial Nominee Robert B. Bluey Staff Writer

(CNSNews.com) - With a vote scheduled for Tuesday on embattled judicial nominee James Leon Holmes, conservatives are turning up the pressure on a handful of Republican senators who they fear might vote against the Arkansas attorney.

Holmes has waited more than 17 months since he was first nominated by President Bush to fill a federal district court seat in Arkansas. Even though he has the support of Arkansas' two senators, both Democrats, conservatives are concerned about some wavering Republicans.

During a conference call Thursday to strategize on Holmes' confirmation vote, conservatives identified two Republican senators - Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania - as potential opponents of Holmes.

Even though Hutchison generally aligns herself with conservatives, she is one of five Republican women in the Senate who are being courted by Holmes' supporters. The others include Maine's Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski and North Carolina's Elizabeth Dole.

The breakdown by gender is the result of repeated Democratic attacks on the issue of women's rights. Democrats attacked Holmes at his Judiciary Committee hearing last year, because he and his wife authored an article in 1997 about the roles of husband and wife in a Christian marriage. The article was based on the language of St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

One phrase, in particular, caught the attention of his liberal critics, who claimed Holmes was unfit for the seat because his article stated, "the wife is to subordinate herself to the husband" and "the woman is to place herself under the authority of the man."

The Catholic League was quick to defend Holmes. Its president, William Donohue, said Democrats shouldn't have attacked Holmes for making a reference to the Bible in the article.

"They would have been on more persuasive grounds had they been able to point to a single instance when the private religious beliefs of Holmes had unfairly colored his ability to render a fair judgment," Donohue said. "Their failure to do so speaks volumes."

That hasn't stopped the attacks from the left, however. Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron sent a memo to editorial writers Thursday, criticizing Holmes as an opponent of women's rights and abortion. The National Women's Law Center also sent an "action alert" urging Holmes' defeat.

"Usually district court nominees are not the subject of this level of opposition," said Elliot Mincberg, vice president and legal director at People For the American Way, which opposes Holmes. "But I think it's the very extreme nature of what Mr. Holmes has said that caused a lot of concern among our members and activists around the country."

Conservatives remain confident that Holmes will win approval Tuesday, but they plan to make a last-minute push with certain senators, said Manuel Miranda, chairman of the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary's Ethics in Nominations Project. Miranda organized Thursday's conference call.

In addition to the Republicans being courted, some Democrats are also in play, according to the call's participants. Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Zell Miller (D-Ga.) are expected to vote for Holmes, and Louisiana's two Democrats - John Breaux and Mary Landrieu - could also cross over.

One of the conservatives who took part in the call, Kelly J. Shackelford, chief counsel of the Liberty Legal Institute, said Hutchison can expect to hear from Texans before Tuesday's vote.

"I can't imagine her opposing one of the president's nominees, especially one who's being opposed, in my view, by people because of anti-Christian bigotry," Shackelford said. "If anything's different from that, we'll let everyone know in the state so they let her know whether they agree or disagree with what she's doing."

Specter remains in the mix as well. Project 21 member Mychal S. Massie, who lives near Philadelphia, said he would be reaching out to black churches in the city in hopes of swaying the senator's vote.

Specter has denied reports that he led a secret campaign among Republicans to oppose Holmes. In a letter to the Wall Street Journal last September, Specter said he concurred with Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch that Holmes' nomination should be sent to the Senate floor without a committee recommendation, but he dismissed a report that he wanted Holmes defeated.

Regardless of Specter's position - he hasn't publicly said what he plans to do Tuesday - Massie noted the senator's opposition to Republican nominees in the past. Massie also dismissed concerns about Holmes' controversial article that has caused much rancor among liberals.

"To deny a person based strictly on that is to unambiguously state that judicial nominees shall come before the Senate Judiciary Committee absent of thought and conviction and principle," Massie said. "That is an egregious position on its face."

Another conservative leader, Kay Daly, president of the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary, said Democrats have gone too far in the case of Holmes.

"It used to be a badge of honor to be a man of faith," Daly said. "It was something expected of judicial nominees. Now it's a one-way ticket to a filibuster."

Democrats attacked Holmes at his Judiciary Committee hearing last year, because he and his wife authored an article in 1997 about the roles of husband and wife in a Christian marriage. The article was based on the language of St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

This is clearly a "religious test" for office.

Is it any different than blackballing a man because his religion tells him to avoid shellfish and pork?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with "leadership" in every office in government, every unit in the military, every business in Main Street USA, every team in sports.....but talk about "leadership" in a family, and suddenly you've crossed a line.

The chairman of the board can do what's positive for his team, or he can cause dissension and strife.

But...no one argues that corporations should REJECT leadership.

Post #2 is a great post. I hope you all will check it out.

I am telling you my friends dangerous days are ahead in the life of this Nation. Sometimes it seems so surrealistic that there is a complete political movement in this country attempting to totally and completely redefine America from Her original intended purpose.

Part of this redefining is placing judges on the Bench who clearly either have never read the Constitution in its entirety, or just simply do not care to follow the out line established by our Fore Fathers in the Constitution. Never before in our history has there been such a move to destroy America from within as there is today. Either way, America is self destructing before our very eyes!!!! The fault is ours!!! We as a society have not only failed to perform our civic duties, but we have looked the other way when these unfaithful, Godless men we call representatives of us, stand in the face of the entire Nation and completely ignore and disregard the Constitution. We have scholars on all levels who have been allowed to rewrite our history books in such a way that the truth of what happened, and how this Nation came to be in existence no longer even comes close to resembling How we as a Nation came to be and how we arrived at this place in time. What is worse, these lies are now taught to school age children, and older as documented historical fact.

Do you folks realize there are politicians in office who have been elected and charged with upholding and defending the Constitution who are not only failing to live up to their obligations, but are attempting to do an end around their obligations to make America in to something She was never intended to be? There was a time in our history if someone suggested two men or two women should be allowed to come together in an unholy and evil matrimony, there would have been protests in the streets!!!! There was a time in this Nation's history when to suggest the killing of an unborn child would not only have been called evil, but feverishly prosecuted as murder. Such ideas would have shocked our collective senses 50 years ago. Now, these things are looked upon as God given rights. None of which is true. This same political movement is now making a very real and an ever increasing successful effort to move us all from the original intended independence from Government to enslaving us all under the yoke of Government. To disguise this effort, they have renamed it social programs. God knows without Government none of us could survive. Mr. or Mrs. Liberal, by any other name, it is still slavery, just to a different master.
Thomas Jefferson, you are right sir!!! God is just, and we can not expect His justice to sleep forever!!!! May God have mercy on our National Soul!!!! I tremble at the thought of what lies in store for this Nation in its future if we continue to follow the path we are currently following.

MAY GOD HELP US!!! No one else can!!!!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.