Conservative Group to Oppose John Roberts

[Goldmund]

WASHINGTON - A conservative group in Virginia said Tuesday it was withdrawing its support for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts' confirmation because of his work helping overturn a Colorado referendum on gays.

The group, Public Advocate of the United States, is one of the first conservative organizations to announce anything but support for the judge

Eugene Delgaudio, the president of the group, said in an interview that he hopes his stance will prod others.

"I know that others feel the same way. I know they believe as I do. They're just not going to act," the 50-year-old Northern Virginia man said. "But once I've done it, then they can't claim that no one's opposing Roberts."

More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050809/ap_on_go_co/roberts;_ylt=AlM_wJxAL8WkcCT.S7pd6wmyFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[liberaliraqvet26]

1. this is great...

nothing could split the right better gay issues!

[mom cat]

5. Poetic Justice

[slor]

2. I love when the right-wingers feast upon their own!

There is always a group more hateful than another. I pray that they destroy themselves completely, so we can get on with improving the world for all.

[Domitan]

3. FUNNY!

Now witness Bush getting hit from the far right that he catered to for so long. Truthfully, Bush's heart does not fit with the far right's agenda as he's more tolerant of gays and pro-corporation/anti-privacy...akin to Robert's likely agenda.

[ironman202]

4. i wouldn't get overly excite...

Public Advocate of the United States is run out of some guys house in Leesburg. They (he) are just an anti gay hate group. A committee of one, as it were....

[MADem]

Yeah, unfortunately

Pity it wasn't a Falwell force that was up in arms, one that could afford to plaster an angry, dire, typical-bullshit commercial all over cable. That would be worth seeing...just to see the infighting!

[VegasWolf]

19. Already Ann Coulter is fighting with O'Liely over this. nt

[starroute]

6. I've run into Delgaudio's name before

Eugene Delgaudio is the brother of Richard Delgaudio, a classic right-wing wacko who made the Top 10 Conservative Idiots a couple of years ago when he got into trouble for kiddie porn:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/03/107.html

What a family.

[4_Legs_Good]

7. This right-wing rejection of Roberts is a ploy to portray him as a

concession to the center so that, if/when another spot opens up they'll be able to tell Americans (and George Jr.) that he's gotten his moderate and now it's time for another Scalia.

They're trying to play us all.

david

[zbdent]

8. snicker - if only this weren't a smokescreen

Seems that way to me - put out a few "fake organizations" to make Roberts look bearable to the left . . .

[brentspeak]

20. My thoughts, too n/t

[Halliburton]

9. Conservative Group Pulls Roberts Support

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050809/ap_on_go_co/roberts;_ylt=AlM_wJxAL8WkcCT.S7pd6wmyFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

<snip>
The group, Public Advocate of the United States, is one of the first conservative organizations to announce anything but support for the judge

Eugene Delgaudio, the president of the group, said in an interview that he hopes his stance will prod others.

"I know that others feel the same way. I know they believe as I do. They're just not going to act," the 50-year-old Northern Virginia man said. "But once I've done it, then they can't claim that no one's opposing Roberts."

"We can't take our limited resources and put it toward a candidate who is not a strict constructionist when we were told he is," Delgaudio said.
<snip>

[LiberalVoice]

10. You cant pick and choose lies asshole. nt

[Swamp Rat]

11. Good!

Scum eating scum! :D

[VegasWolf]

12. YES! This ought to get the FReepers heads spinning in circles!!

They were already worried that Roberts was another Souter as Ann
Coulter has pointed out. BTW, I have never understood how the
moniker "strict constructionist" is code for religious bigot.

[niallmac]

13. I've been in a coma I guess. What

have they got their pantys in a bind over?

[DrZeeLit]

16. I'm just guessin'... but that 6 hours of pro-bono for Gay Rights...might

just not set right with some of them.

Supposedly it was for a really tough case that "for" Gay Rights. And he helped.
Plus, some other work he's done.

Personally, I don't see 6 hours of work in a career as a big deal, but hey... when these people get their undies in a twist... let's just say... they really GO COMMANDO.

[Ian David]

18. It was six hours of work he VOLUNTEERED for FREE

He did pro-boner work for tha homa-sex-yoo-all ajender!

[DrZeeLit]

21. Yes, I think that's the definition of "pro bono"...mmm... for free.... n/t

[stuckinlucky]

14. Call me paranoid, but...

I wouldn't put it past the Bushies to secretly talk to a few fringe right-wing groups and ask them to come out against Roberts. Thus, the uninformed public perception is: "The Democrats are against him and the fundies are against him, hm.. he must be a centrist." Don't know if it's true, and I don't know if it'll work even if it is, but it's a possibility.

[napi21]

15. I suppose that's possible, as long as the broup is very small.

I don't know anything about the one in this thread, never heard of them. If they are a very small group that coupd get a private message out to their few members, maybe. I would NEVER work in a large org. link most of them are!

[VegasWolf]

17. That little disclosure about Roberts doing Pro Bono work for gay

organizations really went down the wrong tube, so to speak, for the
religious fanatics.

[AlCzervik]

22. In other words-"You don't hate enough for us"

that group is part of the AFA.

[Purrfessor]

23. Excellent news......

even if it is from a conservative organization.

[JohnKleeb]

24. Ive heard of him

his brother is a delegate from my area, really conservative.

[question everything]

25. "Real conservatives" consider him a clown

From WSJ's Taranto "Best of the Web"

The Great Conservative Crack-Up
"A conservative group in Virginia said Tuesday it was withdrawing its support for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts' confirmation because of his work helping overturn a Colorado referendum on gays," reports the Associated Press:

(snip)

What's hilarious about this is that the AP plays this story (you'll pardon the expression) straight, when it turns out Delgaudio is essentially a clown. Byron York on National Review Online quotes from an article of his own that appeared in The American Spectator in 1996:

Perhaps "activist" is the wrong word to describe Delgaudio. Maybe it's better to call him a clever but small-time practitioner of the art of political guerrilla theater. . . . His primary activity is to stage events--comic protests with a political message. Republicans in Washington might remember one a few years ago, when the "Ted Kennedy Swim Team" marched from La Brasserie, one of the Massachusetts senator's favorite hangouts, to the Capitol. That was Delgaudio. A few months later came the "Barney Frank Housesitting Squad," a crusade to create a "hooker-free zone" around the gay congressman's house in case a male prostitute again tried to do business there without Frank's knowledge. That was Delgaudio, too.

And then there was "Pornographers Against Helms," a group formed during the congressional battle over federal funding for obscene art projects. "Pornographers Against Helms" lent its support to Michigan Democrat Carl Levin when he opposed Jesse Helms's move to ban funding--leading some observers to believe that real-life pornographers really backed Levin. The senator was said to be outraged; "Pornographers Against Helms" turned out to be Delgaudio's handiwork.

A Factiva search turned up an April 4, 1994, article in the Washington Post that recounts a confrontation between Delgaudio and a similar group on the left:

(snip)

When a Public Advocate member said AIDS is a lifestyle disease of sexual deviants, his side was accused of being "a pack of bingo freaks," and two men from ACT-UP began kissing just inches from the faces of men from Public Advocate. Police separated the two groups when one of the men kissing was hit with a "Sodomy-free zone" sign.

(snip)

So we'd have to say Delgaudio's dissent is not worth taking seriously. On the other hand, if the Conservative Bloggers Who Support the Gay Judge Roberts change their minds, then we'll know the nomination is in trouble.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/

[Moderator]

26. Locking

author was banned