Senate Panel Delays Vote on Pryor Nomination

[Judi Lynn]

Senate Panel Delays Vote on Pryor Nomination
Thu July 17, 2003 09:33 PM ET
By Thomas Ferraro


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on Thursday on judicial nominee William Pryor as it examined Democratic complaints that he may have misled the panel about his campaign fund-raising.

Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, dismissed the charges as a "tempest in a teapot," saying he is satisfied Pryor, Alabama's attorney general, did nothing wrong.

But under pressure from Democrats, Hatch postponed the vote and directed committee staff to keep looking into the matter and again contact Pryor, as well as a former employee who provided fund-raising documents to Democrats two weeks ago.

Hatch initially rescheduled the committee vote for late Thursday following a Democratic stalling tactic. But he later pushed back the vote until next Wednesday, saying one committee member had to leave for family reasons.

Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, complained "there was a rush to judgment" and more time may be needed for an adequate investigation.

Democrats have pounced on the documents as new ammunition against Pryor, an abortion opponent whom they have denounced as part of President Bush's attempt to pack the federal courts with right-wing ideologues. (snip/...)

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=3112642


(Note in this snippet, Reuters describes Democrats as "complaining" and "pouncing."

Can you recall the "liberal" news outlets using psychologically loaded language concerning Republicans?)

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. What liberal media?

Anyway, this tells me two things!!!!!!!!

EMAIL and PHONE campaigns must be making the repubs
waver

They are also loosing suport folks times are a-changing.

[DagmarK]

2. WRITE LETTERS to the swing vote: Arlen Spector!!!

Get some letters to him folks!!!

Go to www.senate.gov and look up his email address.

A month ago, the postponement request would have been laughed at and we would have our new judge sworn in tomorrow! Times are changing.........

[LynneSin]

5. I don't think Pryor would have made it past the filibuster

A month ago, the postponement request would have been laughed at and we would have our new judge sworn in tomorrow! Times are changing.........

Seriously, this guy has probably been the WORST of all the judges that Bush has tried to get on the bench. And we've filibuster Estrada, Owens and more than likely Kuhl. I hardly doubt Pryor would come close to surviving a filibuster.

We can bitch all we want about our democratic senators, but 45 of them have served us well when it comes to keeping these right-wing judges off of the bench.

[deek]

3. Urge the Only Undecided Senator to Reject Judicial Nominee Pryor

Pryor's views on civil rights, reproductive choice and religious liberty are tremendously frightening when considering he could be confirmed to one of the highest courts in the land:

Pryor has repeatedly defended the display of the Ten Commandments in state courthouses, and at a "Save the Commandments" rally he stated: "God has chosen, through his son Jesus Christ, this time and this place for all Christians…to save our country and save our courts."
Pryor has called Roe v. Wade “the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history."
As part of his overall "states' rights" agenda, which is an attempt to limit the ability to pass laws protecting individual rights and the environment, he also argued that the Supreme Court should limit the protections of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Clean Water Act.
Pryor has defended chaining prisoners to hitching posts and has argued that states’ execution of mentally retarded inmates did not violate the U.S. Constitution.

<snip>

Urge Senator Specter to vote "No" on the nomination of William Pryor to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Deadline: Ongoing

send ActForChange email at http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?itemid=15295&afccode=PRY001

[dusty64]

4. Done!

There must be a lot of stink on this guy if hatch isn't trying to ram him down our throats, another unqualified extremist.