No Far-Right Judges! 2002-05-15, 5:11 p.m. Republicans have begun a big press push to get press coverage blaming Democrats for the high vacancy rate on the federal bench. 1) PLEASE WRITE AND CALL RADIO AND TV STATIONS AND NEWSPAPERS WHICH CARRY REPUBLICAN STATEMENTS BLAMING DEMOCRATS FOR CAUSING THE HIGH VACANCY RATE ON THE FEDERAL BENCH LATER THIS WEEK. (We expect most coverage this coming Friday.) LET THE MEDIA KNOW THAT IT ISN'T THE PACE OF CONFIRMATIONS OR THE HIGH RATE OF JUDICIAL VACANCIES, IT'S THE EXTREME IDEOLOGY OF BUSH'S JUDICIAL NOMINEES THAT WORRIES YOU! 2) PLEASE WRITE SENATORS PATRICK LEAHY AND TOM DASCHLE AND TELL THEM YOU ARE NOT TAKEN IN BY THE REPUBLICAN'S RHETORIC AND SUPPORT THEIR REFUSAL TO CONFIRM EXTREMIST ULTRA-CONSERVATIVE JUDGES LIKE D. BROOK SMITH, PRISCILLA OWEN AND MIGUEL ESTRADA. SEND SENATOR FEINSTEIN A COPY OF YOUR LETTER. Senator Tom Daschle (Fax: 202/224-7895) Senator Patrick Leahy (Fax: 202/224-3479) Senator Dianne Feinstein (Fax: 415/393-0710) address for all: US Senate, Washington, DC 20510. Republicans have already begun their latest round of tactics to try and further their goal of packing the federal courts with right wing ideologues. Starting with Bush's speech last Friday, the Republicans are planning a week's worth of political maneuvering that will culminate with a possible shutdown of the Senate chamber Thursday, according to the Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call on May 6. Roll Call reports, "this week's effort is designed to focus as much of the domestic Beltway media coverage on the judicial issue as is possible." A large press conference is expected on Thursday, the 1 year anniversary of Bush's first nominations of the circuit court bench. As the Washington Post noted in an editorial on May 4, "Bush unblushingly blamed Democrats for the vacancy rate on the federal bench, yet it was Senate Republicans who worked so hard to keep those vacancies vacant." Sen. Leahy points out that 52 judges have been confirmed since the democrats took over the Senate 10 months ago, a number that compares very favorably with the pace of confirmations during the Clinton years. We have already seen the effects, with press coverage in all the major national newspapers. However, the articles are not front page news, and in every case they report both Bush's statements and the counter statements from Senators Leahy and Daschle. The tenor of the articles are that the Democrats and Republicans are trading blame. There has been no substantive coverage of what confirmation of Bush's judicial nominees will mean for the country. previous entries: Anyone? - 2008-01-24 Saturday Film Series at The Free Speech Zone - 2005-12-30 SLC? - 2005-12-21 Please Post - 2005-07-24 From ImpeachBush.org - 2005-06-20 New: Fill out the survey!

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