The following features showcase the Radical Right's effort to take over the Supreme Court. But don't take our word for it ? read the ideas and arguments of the Right Wing, in their own words:
The Right on Alito
Within minutes of President Bush nominating Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, we began closely monitoring and reporting the Right Wing's efforts to promote, defend, and distort the facts about his nomination.
Having been eagerly embraced by virtually every right-wing group in existence, Samuel Alito finally managed to secure the support of some African Americans when CAAP, the Coalition of African American Pastors held a press conference on January 5th to announce its support for his confirmation.
The “Justice Sunday” events have been, and continue to be, little more than forums in which right-wing speakers level reckless and unfair charges of religious bigotry against those who disagree with their extremist political and social agenda.
In the latest attempt to change the subject away from mounting revelations about Samuel Alito's right-wing ideology and record, right-wing supporters of his nomination continue to try to change the subject, this time by launching ad campaigns seeking to tie opposition to Alito?s confirmation to the Right?s bogus claims about a ?war on Christmas.?
Flush with victory from the right-wing campaign to pressure Harriet Miers to withdraw from consideration, the Radical Right was begging the president to deliver a fight over her replacement. After having handed President Bush one of the most stinging defeats and public humiliations of his presidency, the Right demanded that he return with a nominee who possessed 'impeccable' Right Wing credentials, a long paper trail to prove it, and whose nomination would be sure to start a fight.
Samuel Alito is that nominee. President Bush has now given the Right everything it asked for.
There can be no denying that the Right has been overjoyed with the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. After mutinying against their own president and sinking his initial nominee, Harriet Miers, the Right was rewarded with a nominee that could shift the balance on the Court for decades to come, just as they have long demanded.
In less than a month, the far right wing managed to sink the president's Supreme Court nomination, even as the White House urged them to wait for the Senate confirmation hearings. Right-wing activists spent three weeks pushing all the right buttons to lean on the president and get him to adopt a nominee more to their taste. Here are the drums they beat between Harriet Miers' nomination and her withdrawal.
Not so long ago, the Republican Party's right-wing base shared a few simple principles when it came to the president's judicial nominees:
That the president had the right to pick his own nominee;
That inquiring about a nominee's religious views was off-limits;
That there should be no abortion “litmus test” for confirmation;
That the president did not need to extensively consult with anybody prior to naming a nominee; and
That all of the president's nominees deserved an “up or down” vote on the Senate floor!
But shortly after the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, the Right all but abandoned these “principles” and instead launched a successful, multi-pronged attack to kill her nomination.
Now that Harriett Miers has withdrawn, we hope that President Bush will nominate a respected jurist who can draw bipartisan support and respect. But we doubt that will happen. The far-right wing of the Republican Party brought down Harriet Miers’ nomination because they want to replace Sandra Day O’Connor with a nominee who is openly committed to shifting the Court dramatically to the right. That has been the goal of right-wing leaders since they first endorsed Bush for president, and they’re now demanding the payback they believe they’ve earned.
On a conference call held by national right-wing leaders to convince grassroots activists to support Miers, Land argued that Miers can be trusted to rule the way Bush expects ? anything else would be a personal betrayal. GOP Chair Ken Mehlman touted Miers? willingness to support Bush?s actions in the war on terror. And Religious Right attorney Jay Sekulow said he wanted her vote for an upcoming Supreme Court case on restricting abortion rights.
After listening Monday to the opening statements of some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary - who urged him to ?decline to answer? as many questions as possible - John Roberts appears to have taken their advice to heart.
From their opening statements today, it's clear that some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are hoping to help Roberts through the committee process by setting the stage for him to refuse to answer critical questions about his legal views and judicial philosophy.
Last Wednesday, a collection of women billing themselves as ?Women for Roberts? held a press conference organized by a PR firm responsible for the disgraced ?Swift Boat? attack ads.
On August 24, Project 21, an African American initiative of the right wing National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), held a press conference along with other far right African Americans and Hispanics, to convey the appearance of broad “minority support” for John Roberts’ confirmation to the Supreme Court. This “new leadership for Black America,” seems little more than African American spokespeople with extremist views that are at odds with what the majority of African Americans care about and believe.
Going straight to their own ?Fear and Smear ? campaign now that it looks like attempts to intimidate Democratic Senators on the Judiciary Committee are not working , the Judicial Confirmation Network attacked Senate Democrats Pat Leahy and Ted Kennedy for accurately stating that John Roberts? record so far points to an ?eager, aggressive advocate? of the far right. Rather than looking to Roberts? record to refute these statements or presenting their case for supporting Roberts, JCN resorted to smearing the senators as ?liberal extremists? who ?are trying to twist the confirmation process.?
The day before he spoke at ?Justice Sunday II,? the Catholic League's Bill Donohue openly admitted that he hopes to ?intimidate? the Senate Judiciary Committee into confirming John Roberts to a seat on the Supreme Court.
Five months later, those responsible for the first “Justice Sunday” event announced that they are staging another; this one entitled “Justice Sunday II - God Save the United States and this Honorable Court." The first “Justice Sunday” focused on the filibuster at a time when Senate Republicans were threatening to “go nuclear” in order to remove the Democrats' ability to use the Senate's filibuster prerogative.
The Republican Party's right wing base seems to think they know exactly who John Roberts is - and they are obviously reassured by what they think they know.
The Right's win-at-all-costs advocacy disguised as “defense “ now routinely includes slanderous attempts to intimidate Senate Democrats and their political allies by trying to paint opposition to the nominee — or even questions about his views on the right to privacy — as being rooted in anti-Catholic or anti-Christian bigotry.
Within minutes of learning that President Bush intended to nominate Judge John Roberts to fill the seat vacated by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Right Wingers were flooding the press with praise for the nominee.
The Bush administration is growing increasingly frustrated by Right Wing leaders’ insistence on determining who the president nominates to the Supreme Court.
After Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced her retirement on July 1, right-wing pundits, activists and leaders wasted no time and continued lambasting her for her legacy as a mainstream conservative with moderate opinions in areas where radical right activists prefer extreme judicial activism. These pundits used O’Connor’s announcement to rally their troops and encourage President Bush to nominate what they call a “strict Constitutionalist” nominee.
It seems as if there is just no pleasing President Bush's Right Wing base.... Recent developments have compelled the Right to grow ever more vocal in its demands that the president nominate, not someone who will examine and decide cases on their merits, but someone who shares their radical ideology and will make it the law of the land.
Right Wing groups and columnists are making it clear that nominating of any sort of "consensus" candidate is completely unacceptable. This is no surprise. The Radical Right has reacted with outrage over the past few years whenever any sort of "compromise" has been reached regarding judicial nominations.
