Right Wing Not Interested In Building Consensus
Right Wing Not Interested In Building Consensus
This morning on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked C. Boyden Gray, former counsel to President George H.W. Bush and head of the conservative group Committee for Justice, why right-wing groups are planning to spend millions of dollars on a Court nominee:
The money that will be spent will be spent to counterbalance what [the other side is] doing. It’s more a defensive measure to support the president, not to try to influence how the president makes his own picks.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), appearing on Face the Nation, disagreed:
[S]ome of the right-wing groups, of course, are trying to push the president into getting the most conservative person that they can get.
Appearing later on Face the Nation, Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the right-wing group American Center for Law and Justice, bore out Hatch’s view:
This idea that we’ve got to have a consensus candidate I think is ridiculous This idea that the president has to come up with a consensus candidate with the Senate is just wrong.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
I’ve heard the media saying that these right-wing groups have 20 million to spend to back Bush’s nominee, but Gray said on Faux that the groups don’t have 20 million. Which makes you wonder why Sekulow and company are claiming to have money they don’t. The reason? To try to force the White House to cater to their demands. I bet the crazy religous conservatives are telling the White House that we got 20 million that can support your nominee if you choose a wacko, but if you don’t, we’re going to use it against you and tell our base that you picked the wrong guy.
July 3rd, 2005 at 9:56 pmAnd as for consensus, I think they’ll pick a nice consensus candidate in John Ashcroft.
July 3rd, 2005 at 10:01 pmBah, all the Republicans are trying to do is paint themselves into the picture if the candidate is favorable, and run around like chickens with no heads if the candidate isn’t favorable.
It’s all self-interest: what these right-wing groups are doing. None of these people want to support the President’s decision–that’s fine with me. I enjoy standing to the side and watching conservatives (who think they can actually influence the President) tear themselves into pieces.
“It’s more a defensive measure to support the president, not to try to influence how the president makes his own picks.” What? That doesn’t even make sense. How can you act defensive in order to be offensive? It’s a good thing most (if not all) Democrats are sided together on this one. The Republicans may have power, but not if they’re all squabbling amongst themselves.
July 4th, 2005 at 1:04 amWhen do we start the Nuclear Option discussion again?
July 4th, 2005 at 1:41 amBOOM you guys are done.
July 4th, 2005 at 2:20 amGeorge Bush has NEVER shown an interest in moderation, bipartisanship or anything that might be construed as even the slightest interest in the mainstream viewpoint.
He, no doubt, will select a complete nutjob for the post, and the battle will drag on for weeks or months.
He will, again, choose to divide. It’s worth noting that polling continues to show that the majority of Americans do not favor extremist judges from the left or right, but centrists. And they also support the role of Congress in thoroughly vetting judicial nominees.
So… If the President wants to go extreme, to satisfy the Fristians, that’s just fine with me. He wants a fight? No problem.
July 4th, 2005 at 9:58 amSo-called compromise
We’re still in the long weekend of Sandra Day O’Conner’s retirement, and already the so-called compromise is dead, according to some eager reporters.
In the Washington Post, Charles Babbington and Susan Schmidt write that Democrats are “in a bin…
July 4th, 2005 at 1:47 pmCONservativism always begins with a “CON” not a “CONsensus”. The problem with conservativism is the delusional belief that they are already right, that change is bad, and that others are always wrong. These self righteous and frankly insane perspectives ripple through all aspects of CONservatism, and usually culminates in people with open mouths and closed minds…
July 4th, 2005 at 6:20 pmInstead of complaining about what type of justice Bush is going to nominate, why don’t democrats try to win elections? This decision is what makes winning elections so important. The religious right wing of the party realized this which is one of the reasons Bush won in 2004. So suck it up and win the next election and quit crying about why Bush has so nominate a moderate or a progressive already!
July 6th, 2005 at 2:19 pmRAndy
Democrats are in denial. They don’t really think they are losing the elections. They rationalize their defeats by claiming they were cheated. They don’t get it that they have no agenda other than attacking the other sides agenda, and it does not sell very well. They continue to call GW stupid and incompetent and all he does is kick their asses every election.
July 7th, 2005 at 7:08 pm