Speaking of the Revolution
Saturday, April 9th, 2005 11:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniFrom the Boston Globe:
Rift emerges in GOP after Schiavo case
By Nina J. Easton, Globe Staff | April 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Top conservative leaders gathered here a week after Terri Schiavo's death to plot a course of action against the nation's courts, but much of their anger was directed at leading Republicans, exposing an emerging crack between the party's leadership and core supporters on the right.
Conservative leaders criticized President Bush for failing to speak out strongly against removing the feeding tube from Schiavo, the 41-year-old incapacitated woman who died March 31. They blamed the president's brother, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, for failing to employ State Police powers to take control of Schiavo. They condemned comments by Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Vice President Dick Cheney expressing support for the nation's judges.
And yesterday they issued an ''action plan" to take their crusade for control of the nation's courts well beyond Senate debates over judicial nominees, pressing Congress to impeach judges and defund courts they consider ''activist" and to limit the jurisdiction of federal courts over some sensitive social matters -- a strategy opposed by many leading Senate Republicans.
Read the rest
My nomination for scariest paragraph:
''This is not a Democrat- Republican issue; it is a liberal-conservative issue," Rick Scarborough, a Baptist minister and chair of the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration, sponsor of the gathering, said in an interview. ''It's about a temporal versus eternal value system. We are not going away."
...though this one's nice, too:
Michael Schwartz, chief of staff to Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, said a ''mass impeachment" of judges might be warranted. But Thomas Jipping, counselor to Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, and a veteran judicial strategist, rejected such extreme measures. ''What we really have to focus on is appointing the right kind of judges in the first place," Jipping said.
Rift emerges in GOP after Schiavo case
By Nina J. Easton, Globe Staff | April 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Top conservative leaders gathered here a week after Terri Schiavo's death to plot a course of action against the nation's courts, but much of their anger was directed at leading Republicans, exposing an emerging crack between the party's leadership and core supporters on the right.
Conservative leaders criticized President Bush for failing to speak out strongly against removing the feeding tube from Schiavo, the 41-year-old incapacitated woman who died March 31. They blamed the president's brother, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, for failing to employ State Police powers to take control of Schiavo. They condemned comments by Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Vice President Dick Cheney expressing support for the nation's judges.
And yesterday they issued an ''action plan" to take their crusade for control of the nation's courts well beyond Senate debates over judicial nominees, pressing Congress to impeach judges and defund courts they consider ''activist" and to limit the jurisdiction of federal courts over some sensitive social matters -- a strategy opposed by many leading Senate Republicans.
Read the rest
My nomination for scariest paragraph:
''This is not a Democrat- Republican issue; it is a liberal-conservative issue," Rick Scarborough, a Baptist minister and chair of the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration, sponsor of the gathering, said in an interview. ''It's about a temporal versus eternal value system. We are not going away."
...though this one's nice, too:
Michael Schwartz, chief of staff to Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, said a ''mass impeachment" of judges might be warranted. But Thomas Jipping, counselor to Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, and a veteran judicial strategist, rejected such extreme measures. ''What we really have to focus on is appointing the right kind of judges in the first place," Jipping said.
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-09 08:37 am (UTC)The gathering's hero was House majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas, now under fire on ethics charges. DeLay, who has called for retribution against judges in the Schiavo case, said Congress should ''reassert [its] constitutional authority over our courts."
''The failure to a great degree is Congress," he said in a video he taped because he was attending the pope's funeral. ''This era of constitutional cowardice must end."
Congress is going to push him out, and he's going to run for president in 2008. How could I have missed this?
Our only hope is that the conservatives realize that at least they can deal with moderates of both parties--but not with the radical right or left. The middle has to take back the government, or we aren't going to like living here.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-09 01:10 pm (UTC)Somewhere recently--NYTimes?--I read an article about how the Orthodox Church has managed to get art exhibitions shut down and news articles quashed in Russia because any criticism whatsoever, or indeed any comment whatsoever, on the Orthodox Church is being legally designated as "hate speech."
Between the religious right in this country, the resurgent religious right (left? I get so confused) in Russia, and fundamentalism of every brand and description all over the damn place... it makes me wonder if we aren't headed, globally, for a very Bad Place. For a very long time.