Taking Audacity to A New LevelTaking Audacity to A New Level By

Taking Audacity to A New Level

By: J.G. Schwam - 08/02/03

Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah) is on board with the concept of placing right wing ideologue judges on the federal bench. He is so bent on infusing the will of the far rights theocratic agenda on our nation that he made it clear that the accepted parliamentary rules of the judiciary committee can simply be discarded to serve these ends.

In order to get Alabama Attorney General William Pryor's nomination to the Washington, DC US First Circuit Court of Appeals onto the Senate floor for a vote Hatch categorically refused to acknowledge Sen. Patrick Leahy's (D-VT) request to enforce the committees own rules in order to steamroll through a vote on Pryor, an impertinent 41 year old right wing extremist with no judicial experience who is Alabama's former Attorney General.

Hatch's impudence is simply galling. Not just to the press or the liberal punditry, but to every Democrat on the Senate Judicial Committee, which he chairs.

Every single Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee voted against turning Pryor's nomination out to the full senate for a vote, each uttering "under protest for violation of rule 4" after their nea vote, in reference to Hatch's blatant, unabashed violation of the committee's "rule four".

The Senate Judiciary Committees Rule 4 was created so that the majority could not overrule the right of any minority to continue debate and force a vote to nominate against the better judgment or agreement of a minority member within the committee. It simply states that one member of the minority, can block a motion to vote by invoking rule 4 and thus requesting that the debate or any pending investigations into a judicial nominees background, record or statements be allowed to continue until all questions relating to the veracity of a such statements or records have been addressed or completed.

Hatch refused to recognize Senator Patrick Leahy's (I-VT) right to invoke the rule and allow investigations into Pryor's statements relating to his involvement with the RAGA, the controversial Republican Attorney General's Association to complete and submit a report for the committees review before a vote on Pryor's nomination.

Pryor was among GOP attorneys general in at least six states who called and solicited political donations from corporations or trade groups subject to lawsuits or regulations by their state governments, according to documents cited by The Washington Post. Attorney General's are prohibited from participating directly in any fundraising activities.

Pryor, a founding and current board member of RAGA denied raising funds directly despite his board membership in the organization. Pryor also denied knowledge that RAGA has a finance committee at all. In addition to the allegations against Pryor himself, RAGA's finance committee has also been alleged to have directly sought donations from corporations that may have been involved in litigation with Attorney's General in states in which the donations where sought. A blatant and immoral conflict of interest that appears to border on solicitation.

A group of Bush judicial nominees outraged Leahy and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) by paying for an advertisement alleging a baseless religious bias on the part of Democratic members of the Judicial Committee. Hatch appeared to condone the outrageous divisive ad, the New York Times reported. "Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, sounded a similar theme this week, asserting that "the left is trying to enforce an antireligious litmus test" whereby "nominees who openly adhere to
Catholic and Baptist doctrines, as a matter of personal faith, are
unqualified for the federal bench in the eyes of the liberal Washington interest groups." The ads showed a courthouse door with a sign reading "Catholics Need Not Apply". The ads were reported to be produced in conjunction with C. Boyden Gray a former George H.W. Bush house counsel and Citizens for a Sound Economy, a smoke and mirrors lobby group he chairs.

It was in fact Senator Jeff Sessions who outraged nearly the entire committee by asking Pryor what his religion was and if he thought his "deeply held religious beliefs" would influence his ability to impartially uphold the law. Pryor has claimed to be a devout Catholic. Sessions seems to be unaware that Article IV section III of the United Sates Constitution clearly reads, "The senators and representatives before-mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

There is enough that is questionable in Pryor's background to exclude him without violating the first amendment.

In his zeal to support unqualified arrogant federal court nominees like Pryor, that toe the right wing extremist line with no other personal motivation except their arduous zeal and lust for power, Hatch has made a mockery of both committee he chairs, the rule of law, the integrity of the judicial nomination process and the Senate itself.

He has taken base audacity to a new level.