http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04317/410839.stm
Damn fundamental Christian thugs. Such tolerance.WASHINGTON -- Conservative groups yesterday urged Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum to help lead the fight to deny the Senate judiciary committee chairmanship to his colleague, Sen. Arlen Specter.
The groups noted that they already were upset with Santorum, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, for supporting Specter earlier this year in his Republican primary contest against Rep. Patrick Toomey, a conservative and strong opponent of abortion.
If Santorum hopes to avoid his own Senate primary battle in two years --and perhaps make a run for president in 2008 -- he needs to heed conservative concerns about whether Specter, a moderate, can be trusted to shepherd President Bush's judicial nominees through the Senate, the groups said.
"When I was out on the road in Pennsylvania, people were so angry with Sen. Santorum for backing Sen. Specter" in the primary, said the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, head of the Christian Defense Coalition. "Wouldn't it be fascinating if Congressman Toomey ran a primary against Santorum?"
Jan LaRue, chief counsel of the Concerned Women for America, agreed that Santorum "has got to do something here. The Senate controls its own rules; there are a number of ways they can address this. It's up to them, but get rid of him [Specter].
"Santorum would like to become the president of the United States, but he alienated a lot of pro-family, pro-life people when he came to Specter's aid over Toomey, who is a strong pro-life man...," LaRue said. "If he wants to get back that kind of support for his future political ambitions, he's got to do something" about Specter.
Santorum has so far refused, however, to be drawn into the public controversy. Asked for a comment yesterday, Santorum's press secretary, Christine Shott, said he was sticking with his statement earlier this week that he was willing to leave the decision up to the Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Conservative groups, meanwhile, announced that they were planning a "pray-in" Tuesday in Washington as part of their battle against Specter. The groups will pray outside one of the Senate office buildings and then attempt to present their concerns to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
The pray-in is just the latest in a series of efforts -- including the Web sites www.notarlen.com and www.notspecter.com -- to defeat Specter's bid for the chairmanship. While conservatives have never championed Specter, they were particularly outraged by his recent comments that Bush should be "mindful" that Senate Democrats, now numbering 44, still have enough votes to block judicial nominees, including potential U.S. Supreme Court choices.
"It brought back all of the mistrust we have of him," said Nancy Staible, head of the Pennsylvania branch of Concerned Women for America. "Many of us feel betrayed."
But Specter, who just won re-election to a fifth term, insisted again yesterday in an interview that he wasn't issuing a warning to Bush.
"There are two basic facts in this matter. One, I have never had a litmus test for nominees. ... And, two, I have supported President Bush's nominees. These people [conservative foes] like to have it all their own way."
Specter also said he has been singled out because he is the lone moderate Republican on the judiciary panel, and the same people who opposed him in the primary now are attempting to deny him the committee chairmanship. "It's another campaign," he said, adding, "It's a question of balance -- not only balance within the party, but balance within the country."
The chairmanship would normally be Specter's by seniority, although senators must hold a formal vote when the new session of Congress begins in January. But the Specter issue is expected to come up next week at a meeting of Senate Republicans when the current Congress returns for a lame-duck session.
Stung by the conservatives' campaign, which has flooded Capitol Hill with e-mails and phone calls, Specter has mounted his own effort to collect enough Senate GOP backing to assure him the judiciary post. He said he had spoken directly with most of the other nine senators who now serve on the committee.
He added that current Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who is denied another turn at the helm by Senate term limits, has promised to schedule a meeting of the panel's Republicans next week so that Specter can address them. The issue is complicated by the fact that an additional Republican seat may be added to the committee in January and that some current members may leave the panel for seats on other committees.
Mahoney said conservative groups were prepared to "keep the pressure on" for the next couple of months. "This is just the first step in a long, drawn-out process that won't end until January," he said.
Defeating Specter's quest for the judiciary committee top spot is particularly important now, conservatives said, since it appears that Bush could have at least one Supreme Court seat to fill. They see it as imperative that the Senate approve judges who will uphold "the rule of law." To many conservatives, the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion is an example of when judges made law, instead of upholding it.
"So many of the people who worked so hard for the president and for the Republican majority in the House and Senate -- their main concern was [curtailing] judicial activism," Mahoney said. "To suddenly wake up ... and realize that all of your hard work has resulted in perhaps the chairmanship of Sen. Arlen Specter is very troubling.
"What is even more troubling is the fact that there were many first-time voters. ... Many of them asked, 'Will my vote make a difference? Can we change the establishment and culture of Washington, D.C.?' And we said, 'Yes, you can.' "
If Senate Republicans refuse to heed conservative concerns about Specter, he added, that would show a "major disconnect" between them and the rest of the party. But it's not easy to break into the Senate's "very close-knit subculture," Mahoney said.
"It's an uphill battle to fight seniority. All of the 55 Republicans have a vested interest in seniority. ... But we hope that a new day dawned in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 2."
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