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Remarks by Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D. Family Research Council Telecast April 24, 2005 Tony, thank you. And good evening to all of you. The judicial nominations debate has created quite a bit of controversy. Emotions are running high on both sides, and it reveals once again, our country's desperate need for more civility in political life. All of us who are active in politics -- whether Republican or Democrat -- need to remember the lesson of Ronald Reagan -- that we can disagree without being disagreeable. Now let me tell you about a disagreement that is going on in...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Believers must exercise their Christian citizenship beyond the ballot box to halt activist judges and secularist senators who are robbing Americans of their religious liberty, R. Albert Mohler Jr. told a nationwide audience April 24 during “Justice Sunday” at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky. Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was one of several speakers at the event, which was designed to mobilize Christians to action against judicial filibusters, which Democrat senators have used to block 10 of President Bush’s appellate court nominees. In most of the cases, senators objected to the nominees' pro-life views. The...

Will "Justice Sunday" turn out to be a political and religious mistake? I think so. The scheduled April 24 rally and national telecast, sponsored by conservative Christian groups, advertises people I respect, including James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, and Chuck Colson, the born-again Watergate figure and founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries. But the decision to hold the event is a woeful tactic based on a false premise. The premise is that Senate Democrats, by threatening to filibuster several of President Bush's judicial choices, have attacked religious believers. "Stop the filibuster against people of faith" is the slogan....

SETBACK FOR REPUBLICANS The judicial filibuster fight in Washington is getting to be quite a spectacle. Moveon.org has pledged $700,000 for television commercials attacking any rule change that would prevent filibusters. One of the ads shows elephants trampling the congress. Now there's an interesting thought: If you allow an up-or-down vote on a judicial nomination that the equivalent of elephants trampling the congress. There's a reason why this filibuster fight is so important to Democrats. For the last fifty years liberals have managed to enact more of their agenda through the courts than through legislative action. Where the left fails...

WASHINGTON - Senator Frist told religious conservatives yesterday to respect the independence of the judiciary, while demanding that senators end Democrats' ability to filibuster and block confirmation of the president's judicial appointees. Judges deserve "respect, not retaliation, no matter how they rule," the Senate Republican leader said in taped remarks to a Christian conference in Louisville, Ky. The event, "Justice Sunday," was simulcast to churches and radio stations across the county.

Critics: Frist Mingling Religion, Politics Sat Apr 23, 2:46 AM ET Politics - AP By HILARY ROXE, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - It may seem like Sen. Bill Frist (news, bio, voting record) has found religion in recent weeks. At least, that's what critics say about the Senate majority leader's recent alignment with social conservative groups on high-profile issues. Their charge is that Frist is playing to religious groups to gather support for political issues — and potentially for a future presidential race. The Tennessee Republican took some heat when Congress stepped into a legal fight over the life of...

The operative paragraph is here: ``When we think judicial decisions are outside mainstream American values, we will say so. But we must also be clear that the balance of power among all three branches requires respect - not retaliation. I won't go along with that,'' Frist said.

The AOL "welcome" page this morning has a picture of Sen. Frist (with a perverted halo effect around his head) and the headline "Buying votes with religion?" You click and get to an article on the pitch to evangelicals to help Frist stop the filibusters.I don't remember AOL casting aspersions on Gore or Kerry for campaigning in black churches. Or on Dem senators for opposing judge nominees because they're conservative Christians. How can one complain to AOL in a way that might make an effect?

The Reverend Katherine Ragsdale on Frist's shameful ploy to use religion to pack the courts This Sunday at 7:00 pm EDT, Senator Bill Frist is partnering with radical conservatives like James Dobson and Tony Perkins to launch "Justice Sunday" - a national telecast to churches across the country which claims that opposing the far-right's "nuclear option" is tantamount to discrimination against "people of faith." NARAL Pro-Choice America asked me - a lifelong Christian and Episcopal priest - what I thought about "Justice Sunday." Frankly, I don't recognize the God Senator Frist and company speak of. The God I know does...

Starts at 7:00 EST The following is a summary from here http://www.frcaction.org/ Welcome to the fight against filibuster abuse! Justice Sunday, scheduled for April 24, 2005, is a unique event designed to remind our U.S. Senators that the opportunity of public service must be fully open to people of faith. Screening potential nominees to the federal bench on the basis of their religious views and moral convictions violates the American sense of fair play.

WASHINGTON - Majority Leader Bill Frist said Sunday it was not "radical" to ask senators to vote on judicial nominees as he hardened his effort to strip Democrats of their power to stall President Bush's picks for the federal court. Frist, speaking at an event organized by Christian groups trying to rally churchgoers to support an end to judicial filibusters, also said judges deserve "respect, not retaliation," no matter how they rule. A potential candidate for the White House in 2008, the Tennessee Republican made no overt mention of religion in the brief address, according to a text of his...

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will draw a chorus of amens Sunday when thousands of evangelicals across the United States hear his call to put more conservative judges on the federal bench. But even as the Tennessee Republican addresses "Justice Sunday" -- a 90-minute simulcast to conservative churches that enthusiastically backs a Senate rule change to speed nominations -- the leader faces apprehension from another key GOP constituency. The country's leading business lobbying associations, close GOP allies in recent legislative efforts and political campaigns, have told senior Republicans that they will not back the Frist initiative to force votes on...

The Talk Shows Sunday, April 24th, 2005 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Durbin, D-Ill; Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): The Rev. Thomas Bohlin, U.S. vicar of Opus Dei; Joseph Bottum, Editor of First Things; historian Thomas Cahill; the Rev. Joseph Fessio, provost of Ave Maria University; Sister Mary Aquin O'Neill of Mount Saint Agnes Theological Center for Women. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. THIS WEEK (ABC): Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Jon...

A church is hosting a political event Sunday to protest Democratic lawmakers' use of the filibuster to block President Bush's judiciary nominees, a moved that's prompted an outcry from Democrats and some religious leaders. "Justice Sunday" at Highview Baptist Church, organized by the conservative Family Research Council, will feature a videotaped speech by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist rallying churchgoers to protest the filibuster tactic. Other conservatives are scheduled to speak at the church, including R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, and James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family. It is slated to...

ALERT: Sen. John Kerry is upset about the Senate Democrats' filibuster of President Bush's conservative judicial nominees. He's not upset about the fact that the judicial filibuster is unconstitutional. He's not upset about the fact that a minority is blocking a simple "up-or-down," "yes-or-no" vote on these nominees. He's not upset that these liberal Democrats are stopping the United States Senate from fulfilling its constitutional duty to "advise and consent" on judicial nominees. NO... he's upset that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is speaking out AGAINST the filibusters, at a Christian conference on the all-important issue of reining in our...

WASHINGTON, April 21 - As the Senate battle over judicial confirmations became increasingly entwined with religious themes, officials of several major Protestant denominations on Thursday accused the Senate Republican leader, Bill Frist, of violating the principles of his own Presbyterian church and urged him to drop out of a Sunday telecast that depicts Democrats as "against people of faith." Dr. Frist's participation has rekindled a debate over the role of religion in public life that may be complicating his efforts to overcome the Democrats' use of the filibuster, a parliamentary tactic used by Congressional minorities, to block President Bush's judicial...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Christians must make their voices heard in the coming days if Senate Republican leaders are to be successful in breaking the filibustering of judicial nominees, Focus on the Family's James Dobson said April 18. The Senate is expected to vote soon on a controversial rule change that would prevent the filibustering of judges. As of now, a nominee must receive a super-majority of 60 votes to overcome a filibuster -- even if the nominee has the simple majority of 51 votes needed for confirmation. Supporters of the rule change say the filibustering of judges is unconstitutional. The rule...

Sen. Bill Frist's participation in a "Justice Sunday" telecast has offended and/or alarmed a number of Democrats and liberal interest groups. Critics particularly object to the notion that Democrats, by opposing ten of President Bush's conservative judicial nominees, are conducting an assault on "people of faith." On April 24, the Family Research Council hosting a live "simulcast" to churches across the country, hoping to engage conservative "values voters" in the effort to rein in "out-of-control" courts. Frist and a number of conservative religious leaders will address court decisions that have "not only changed our nation's course, but even led to...

Democratic senators accused Senator Bill Frist, the Republican majority leader, of exploiting religion for partisan ends by taking part in a telecast portraying them as "against people of faith" for blocking President Bush's judicial nominations. "Our debate over the rules of the Senate and the use of the filibuster has nothing to do with whether one is religious or not," Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said at a news conference with Senator Harry Reid, the minority leader from Nevada. "I cannot imagine that God - with everything he has or she has to worry about - is going...

This is a New York Times story. "As the Senate heads toward a showdown over the rules governing judicial confirmation, Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader has agreed to join a handful of prominent Christian conservatives in a telecast portraying Democrats as against people of faith for blocking President Bush's nominees. Flyers for the telecast, which have been organized by the Family Research Council and scheduled to originate at a Kentucky Mega Church on the evening of April 24th call the day 'Justice Sunday,' and depict a young man holding a Bible in one hand and a gavel in the...