Labor Unions Join Brady Center To Fight Alito Nomination

[NewXD40fun]

The AFL-CIO Liberal Labor Union is helping gun ban groups fight the Alito Supreme Court nomination

Advocacy Groups Prepare New Ad Campaigns on Alito
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: January 3, 2006

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 - In the final days before hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., partisans on both sides are pulling out all the stops in an effort to sway public opinion.

Moving beyond Judge Alito's judicial record, a coalition of liberal groups is preparing commercials attacking his integrity and credibility instead, several people involved in the effort said Monday. They spoke only after being granted anonymity because the plans are supposed to be confidential until their formal announcement on Wednesday.

Conservatives, for their part, are capitalizing on ethnic pride to rally Italian-American support for Judge Alito with public events and newspaper advertisements. The efforts are aimed particularly at the Northeastern States, where some moderate Republican senators have expressed doubts about his confirmation.

And in Arkansas, home to two moderate Democratic senators whose votes are considered to be in play, another group, the Judicial Confirmation Network, is running Christmas-themed commercials beginning this week on African-American gospel radio stations. In them, the Rev. Bill Owens, a black pastor, urges support for Judge Alito to protect public displays of Nativity scenes and menorahs, and to uphold the right of schoolgirls to "draw pictures of our Savior, Jesus Christ, for class projects."

The advertising campaigns on both sides are the most visible components of a last-minute push by advocacy groups anticipating a potentially close Senate vote. With the hearings set to begin next Monday, both sides are seeking to open new fronts in their lobbying battle. The liberals are adding new issues to commercials about Judge Alito's judicial record that began months ago, while the conservatives are reaching out to groups usually found in the Democratic ranks.

People involved in the LIBERAL COALITION, which includes People for the American Way, the legal group Alliance for Justice, the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the N.A.A.C.P., the Sierra Club and abortion rights groups, said it planned to run new commercials, beginning this week with radio and television advertisements in selected states intended to undercut Judge Alito's credibility.

These people said the first advertisements would focus on occasional lapses from a pledge Judge Alito made at the 1990 hearings for his confirmation to the appeals court that he would recuse himself from cases involving the companies that managed his mutual fund investments, Vanguard and Smith Barney.

Legal ethics experts say judges are not obliged to recuse themselves in such cases. There are very few known lapses during Judge Alito's 15 years on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Judge Alito has said the lapses were inadvertent and occurred long after the initial period covered by his pledge. But the liberal groups plan to highlight differences in his explanations about the cases over time.

Steve Schmidt, a White House spokesman handling the nomination, called the accusations "outrageous."

"Judge Alito has gone through his entire life with a sterling reputation for integrity," Mr. Schmidt said, declaring that the liberal coalition had "decided to throw mud against the wall and see if it sticks."

Leaders of the liberal coalition declined to comment on the advertisements. But they confirmed that they were seeking to raise new concerns about Judge Alito's credibility.

Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way, said the group's goal was to persuade the public that Judge Alito and his supporters had tried to obscure his lifelong commitment to a "right-wing" legal philosophy.

And at a time when Congress will be debating renewal of the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act and the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program, officials of the liberal groups said they hoped to call attention to Judge Alito's record of writings and opinions supporting law enforcement and presidential power.

"I think people's greatest fear is that Judge Alito would side with big government," said Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice. "He would side with allowing government to intrude on individual personal lives."

Mr. Schmidt of the White House said such claims distorted Judge Alito's record on the bench. "They might as well throw in that he was abducted by aliens when he was 15 years old," he said. "It just has no basis in reality."

On Tuesday, Progress for America, a group close to the Bush administration, is expected to announce its own new advertising campaign. And other conservatives have choreographed events intended to defend Judge Alito and undermine his attackers as the hearings begin.

Firing back against the formation of Law Students Against Alito at his predominantly liberal alma mater, Yale Law School, about 150 of its students and alumni signed a letter urging senators to support his confirmation. It is scheduled to run as an advertisement Wednesday in the Congressional publication The Hill, and versions of the letter will be sent to senators as well, said Keith Appell, a conservative publicist organizing efforts to support the nomination.

On Thursday, Concerned Women for America, a conservative Christian group, will hold a news conference to call attention to women supporting Judge Alito. A group of black conservatives and pastors calling for confirmation will hold a conference call for reporters the same day.

Italian-Americans for Judge Alito was organized mainly by Peter Secchia, a Republican donor and former ambassador to Italy under the first President Bush. The group works closely with the current White House, and paid for two advertisements in The New York Times in November urging support for Judge Alito's confirmation. In the next week, the group plans to hold public events with prominent Italian-Americans in Washington; Providence, R.I.; Jersey City; New York; and Wilmington, Del.

In a letter dated Dec. 19, Joseph R. Cerrell, a Democratic donor and vice chairman of the National Italian American Foundation, made the group's case personally to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, a New York Democrat whose campaign he supported.

"While I realize that your philosophical concerns may not allow you to officially support this nomination," Mr. Cerrell wrote, "I can tell you that many within the Italian American community from both parties will be upset if this nominee does not have an opportunity to be considered by the full Senate."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/po...rtner=homepage

http://www.bradycampaign.org/


Those millions of dollars of union dues are a powerful Liberal weapon aren’t they. Can you imagine how many anti-gun Democrats are on the take with the labor unions?

Those millions of dollars of union dues will help the Democrats in their fight against President Bush and our second amendment rights.

Thanks for nothing OH Holy Labor Unions, but you’re not taking my firearms




Tom

[Waldo]

Thanks for that article, it is always important to know what groups are doing for us.

[NewXD40fun]

I wonder what AFL-CIO union members in this XDForum are thinking about this conundrum. Their union is helping the gun ban people.



Tom

[NewXD40fun]

Hey, I'm kind of in a union...I just wrote a check for my yearly dues to the Republican National Committee. And my RNC union brothers always fight for my second amendment rights.




I can't wait for that '06 Christmas card



Tom

[Brickboy240]

Labor unions have long since outlived their usefulness and have actually become what they fought so hard against.

Labor unions are killing the US manufacturing base...whats left of it. Look at what the UAW has done to Ford, Chrysler and GM - its criminal.

Labor unions are not liberal, though - they are neo-socialists.

- Brickboy240

[one-eyed-fatman]

Originally Posted by Brickboy240

Labor unions have long since outlived their usefulness and have actually become what they fought so hard against.

Labor unions are killing the US manufacturing base...whats left of it. Look at what the UAW has done to Ford, Chrysler and GM - its criminal.

Labor unions are not liberal, though - they are neo-socialists.

- Brickboy240

The only reason this is happening is because corporation leaders are not smart enough to work deals in their favor. When corporations get stupid, unions win. If your going to blame one you have to blame the other too. One for being stupid and both for being greedy.

[NewXD40fun]

Originally Posted by Brickboy240

Labor unions have long since outlived their usefulness and have actually become what they fought so hard against.

Labor unions are killing the US manufacturing base...whats left of it. Look at what the UAW has done to Ford, Chrysler and GM - its criminal.

Labor unions are not liberal, though - they are neo-socialists.

- Brickboy240

But Labor Unions or NeoSocs and Liberal/Democrats have many things in common though.

Labor Unions and Liberals/Democrats both tell their vassals, minions and sycophants that they are ENTITLED to Other People's Money.

Is there a more powerful incentive to join the liberal cause than free money?





Tom

[nick19]

Originally Posted by NewXD40fun

But Labor Unions or NeoSocs and Liberal/Democrats have many things in common though.

Labor Unions and Liberals/Democrats both tell their vassals, minions and sycophants that they are ENTITLED to Other People's Money.

Is there a more powerful incentive to join the liberal cause than free money?





Tom

Just ask the former members of the worlds largest union, the USSR, how that idea worked out.

[one-eyed-fatman]

I just read today that the Border Patrol is a union outfit.

[einheit 13]

S yall don't like labor unions....do you like trade unions??