Bush working behind the scenes for a year to sell Roberts to Conservatives

[madfloridian]

This nominee will appeal greatly to Bush's base. Our Democrats won't be able to stop it, and women are going to be the scapegoats in all this. Since the party has been encouraging anti-choice candidates to run in red states anyway, they have already decided women are the ones they will sacrifice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/22/politics/politicsspecial1/22lobby.html

WASHINGTON, July 21 - For at least a year before the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts to the Supreme Court, the White House was working behind the scenes to shore up support for him among its social conservative allies, quietly reassuring them that he was a good bet for their side in cases about abortion, same-sex marriage and public support for religion.

But with a series of personal testimonials about Judge Roberts, his legal work, his Roman Catholic faith, and his wife's public opposition to abortion, two well-connected Christian conservative lawyers - Leonard Leo, chairman of Catholic outreach for the Republican Party, and Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of an evangelical Protestant legal center founded by Pat Robertson - gradually won over most social conservatives to nearly unanimous support, even convincing them that the lack of a paper trail was an asset that made Judge Roberts harder to attack.

Mr. Leo said he told wary social conservatives that even though Judge Roberts had not ruled on abortion or other issues his other opinions showed "a respect for the text and original meaning and a presumption of deference to the political branches of government.

Ms. Roberts, who is also a lawyer, was equally well-connected in conservative circles. She has also been active for several years in Feminists for Life, an anti-abortion group that works largely on college campuses. From 1995 to 1999, she was the group's executive vice president, and she has donated legal services since then, an official of the group said. Serrin Foster, president of Feminists for Life, declined to characterize Ms. Roberts' views but said the group's goals were "bigger" than ending abortion rights. "If Roe were over, that's not enough for us," she said adding that the group's ultimate goal was to "make abortion unthinkable" by providing every pregnant woman and mother with adequate support and resources."

And they are involing James Dobson's group in the ones they are reassuring.
"On Wednesday, Professor George joined a conference call for reporters with James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, to discuss their support for Judge Roberts. They said they knew more about his legal thinking than conservatives had known about Justice David H. Souter, a Republican appointee and a disappointment to them."

[FreedomAngel82]

1. This is very scary

So this guy didn't just come out of nowhere. He does has ties to Bush from what all I've read on him here at DU. We as women are doomed. *sigh* There it all goes. :cry:

[whistle]

17. Robert's ties to BushCo clearly go back to 2000 Florida decision

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-recount21jul21,1,6214792.story?coll=la-news-politics-national&ctrack=1&cset=true

[Fridays Child]

2. For a year? Sounds like he knew he would be staying on for a second term.

Cock-sure, cheating bastard.

[whistle]

3. That explains why facts and data are not available on this....

....neo-con fascist prick!

[niyad]

16. commondreams has a number of articles on him, as do various feminist

websites.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0721-07.htm

(conveniently, the link in this article has not worked since yesterday, so if anyone has another way to get to it, or copied it, please let us know)

Will Roberts be the first Registered Lobbyist
to become a Supreme Court Justice?

Check out the list at this link. Roberts is on the list of Registered Lobbyists Appointed to Bush's Transition Teams.

http://www.publicintegrity.com/bop2004/report.aspx?aid=...

Only cost him $80,000 for the privilege.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0721-04.htm


So if Robert's was appointed to the bench in 2003, it appears that he may have been lobbying while he was judging. Is this was even legal?

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0720-04.htm

[Newsjock]

4. The Stealth Justice is exposed

Just like those say-nothing stealth school board candidates the fundies used to run.

This is BIG, folks.

[Lars39]

5. Dobson's Focus on the Family earn hate group status today.

Just thought I'd tie that in there.

http://www.pej.org/html/print.php?sid=2812

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forced pregnancies, eh? We'll see about that.
These idiots have absolutely no idea what they'll be unleashing.

[ugarte]

10. Re: what they'll be unleashing

I hope you're right. If people don't fight for freedoms won, they can always lose them, and Americans have just been coasting since the 1960s, not fighting for anything. Only apathy has brought us to this point.

[Erika]

6. Women are now 2nd class citizens

Laura looked so cute sweeping off the Crawford Porch for W and the Saudi prince. She's the new role model for republican women.

[seafan]

7. Sounds like *an extreme circumstance* suitable for filibuster.

This nomination calls for all-out war for the direction that our country will take for decades to come.

Our Dem Senators had better gird for a major fight on this guy. Sending this article to Boxer, Reid, Clinton, Kerry, Kennedy, Durbin, etc.

[madfloridian]

8. Yes, indeed, it does. We need to share this article with our congressmen.

You are right. I think some do not read the papers sometimes, so maybe we need to call and write them.

[HockeyMom]

9. I spent well over an hour trying to Google him

and came up with very little. I wanted to see if he was a member of Opus Dei. Got nothing.

I searched his wife too. There were a few pieces listed on her in her role as VP of Feminists for Life, but when I tried to link to them, I got a Members Only Sign In Box for the Feminists for Life. That is very, very strange since I go on all those other "christian" sites and can search anything I want. I have never had this happen before with any of them.

What is with all the SECRECY? Very, very troubling.

[ugarte]

11. I know what you mean. I googled for a picture of him

and got exactly one that predated this week's announcement. How does such a prominent attorney who's worked in Republican administrations have no pictures of himself anywhere?

Very surprising.

[me b zola]

12. That is what I suspected.

They needed that amount of time to get their ducks in a row to support a piece of work like Roberts.

Check this out:

Here's a thread with some fabulous info on how Mrs Roberts is a war profiteer--I mean contractor doing big-business in Iraq.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4161012&mesg_id=4161012

It has been suggested that Roberts *POLITICAL ACTIVISM* during the 2000 Florida recount is a nonstarter. Well, here is a post within such a thread that raises questions of possible illegal activity. Within this post is a link that shows that Roberts worked as a registered lobbyist for the bush/cheney team---possibly as a sitting Federal Judge---that would be illegal:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4145252&mesg_id=4149824



So yeah, I guess they did need a year to offer closed-door deals to get this stinky-ass nomination through.

[necso]

13. The one thing that must

not in any circumstances be let happen is that this turns out to be a stealth vote on an anti-choice candidate.

If it's going to be a choice/no-choice thing, then every last rat-bastard in the Senate must vote on this issue straight-up, not hide from it and pretend like it's not there.

Of course, many are hoping to avoid having this vote (or any SCOTUS nominee vote) seen that way.

I say: "Bring it on."

"Which side are you on?"

"They say in Harlan County,
There are no neutrals there.
You'll either be a union man,
Or a thug for J.H. Blair."

[bluetrain]

14. I just had an awful thought

If we do try to fillibuster him, the government shuts down, shrubco would declare martial law and treasongate evaporates along with everything else. Am I reaching?

[magellan]

15. Do these people have any humility?

...the group's goals (Feminists for Life) were "bigger" than ending abortion rights. "If Roe were over, that's not enough for us," said adding that the group's ultimate goal was to "make abortion unthinkable" by providing every pregnant woman and mother with adequate support and resources.

"Feminists for Life"?? //sneer//

Where the ef'n-el (pardon me for dropping my 'h') does anyone get the nerve to think they can take away a woman's right to decide what "adequate support and resources" she needs in case of pregnancy?? The arrogance is mind-boggling.

I had an open mind, but after learning MIZZ Roberts works for a law firm that's deeply invested in the Iraqi non-reconstruction and now this, I've heard enough. The Roberts nomination gets a :thumbsdown: all the way from me. He and his wife are just two more dangerous ideological fools to go with all the rest of the fundie twits sacrificing humanity for total control in this world.

[madfloridian]

18. The "Culture of Life" group is breathing easier now. Anti-birth control.

Here are some of their stances on abortion, birth control, stem cell research. Take a look at the Science and Medicine section on the left.

http://www.christianity.com/cultureoflife

Here is the statement by that group in the NYT article:

"For people like me who are reading the tea leaves, it is another marker that we can breathe easy," said Austin Ruse, president of the Culture of Life Foundation, a conservative Catholic group.

[DeepModem Mom]

19. This article is very useful in making a case against Roberts. nt