2 Evangelicals Want to Strip Courts' Funds

By Peter Wallsten Times Staff Writer

http://tinyurl.com/dzmoj

WASHINGTON - Evangelical Christian leaders, who have been working
closely with senior Republican lawmakers to place conservative judges
in the federal courts, have also been exploring ways to punish sitting
jurists and even entire courts viewed as hostile to their cause.

An audio recording obtained by the Los Angeles Times features two of
the nation's most influential evangelical leaders, at a private
conference with supporters, laying out strategies to rein in judges,
such as stripping funding from their courts in an effort to hinder
their work.

The discussion took place during a Washington conference last month
that included addresses by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist, who discussed efforts to bring a more
conservative cast to the courts.

Frist and DeLay have not publicly endorsed the evangelical groups'
proposed actions. But the taped discussion among evangelical leaders
provides a glimpse of the road map they are drafting as they work with
congressional Republicans to achieve a judiciary that sides with them
on abortion, same-sex marriage and other elements of their agenda.

"There's more than one way to skin a cat, and there's more than one way
to take a black robe off the bench," said Tony Perkins, president of
the conservative Family Research Council, according to an audiotape of
a March 17 session. The tape was provided to The Times by the advocacy
group Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

DeLay has spoken generally about one of the ideas the leaders discussed
in greater detail: using legislative tactics to withhold money from
courts.

"We set up the courts. We can unset the courts. We have the power of
the purse," DeLay said at an April 13 question-and-answer session with
reporters.

The leaders present at the March conference, including Perkins and
James C. Dobson, founder of the influential group Focus on the Family,
have been working with Frist to eliminate the filibuster for judicial
nominations, a legislative tool that has allowed Senate Democrats to
stall 10 of President Bush's nominations. Frist is scheduled to appear,
via a taped statement, during a satellite broadcast to churches
nationwide Sunday that the Family Research Council has organized to
build support for the Bush nominees.

The March conference featuring Dobson and Perkins showed that the
evangelical leaders, in addition to working to place conservative
nominees on the bench, have been trying to find ways to remove certain
judges.

Perkins said that he had attended a meeting with congressional leaders
a week earlier where the strategy of stripping funding from certain
courts was "prominently" discussed. "What they're thinking of is not
only the fact of just making these courts go away and re-creating them
the next day but also defunding them," Perkins said.

He said that instead of undertaking the long process of trying to
impeach judges, Congress could use its appropriations authority to
"just take away the bench, all of his staff, and he's just sitting out
there with nothing to do."

These curbs on courts are "on the radar screen, especially of
conservatives here in Congress," he said.

Dobson, who emerged last year as one of the evangelical movement's most
important political leaders, named one potential target: the
California-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Very few people know this, that the Congress can simply disenfranchise
a court," Dobson said. "They don't have to fire anybody or impeach them
or go through that battle. All they have to do is say the 9th Circuit
doesn't exist anymore, and it's gone."

Robert Stevenson, a spokesman for Frist, said Thursday that the Senate
leader does not agree with the idea of defunding courts or shutting
them down, pointing to Frist's comments earlier this month embracing a
"fair and independent judiciary." A spokesman for DeLay declined to
comment.

The remarks by Perkins and Dobson drew fire from Barry W. Lynn,
executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and
State, who charged that the two leaders were more brazen in such
private encounters with supporters than their more genteel public
images portray.

"To talk about defunding judges is just about the most bizarre, radical
approach to controlling the outcome of court decisions that you can
imagine," Lynn said.



Frist is expected to try as early as next week to push the Senate to
ban filibusters on judicial nominations - a move so explosive that
Democrats are calling it the "nuclear option."

Democrats have been using the filibuster to block 10 of Bush's appeals
court nominees who they believe are too extreme in their views, but the
skirmishes are considered a preview of a highly anticipated fight over
replacing the ailing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, whose
retirement is considered imminent.

"Folks, I am telling you all that it is going to be the mother of all
battles," Dobson predicted at the March 17 meeting. "And it's right
around the corner. I mean, Justice Rehnquist could resign at any time,
and the other side is mobilized to the teeth."

The remarks by Perkins and Dobson reflect the passion felt by
Christians who helped fuel Bush's reelection last year with massive
turnout in battleground states, and who also spurred Republican gains
in the Senate and House.

Claiming a role by the movement in the GOP gains, Dobson concluded:
"We've got a right to hold them accountable for what happens here."

Both leaders chastised what Perkins termed "squishy" and "weak"
Republican senators who have not wholeheartedly endorsed ending
Democrats' power to filibuster judicial nominees. They said these
included moderates such as Sens. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of
Maine, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania
and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. They also grumbled that Sens. Mitch
McConnell of Kentucky and George Allen of Virginia needed prodding.

"We need to shake these guys up," Perkins said.

Said Dobson: "Sometimes it's just amazing to me that they seem to
forget how they got here."

Even Bush was not spared criticism. Dobson and Perkins encouraged their
supporters to demand that the president act as aggressively on the
judiciary as he has for his Social Security overhaul.

"These are not Bill Frist's nominees; these are President George W.
Bush's nominees," Perkins said. "He needs to be out there putting
pressure on these senators who are weak on this issue and standing in
obstruction to these nominations," he said.

Dobson chided Frist, a likely 2008 presidential contender, for not
acting sooner on the filibuster issue, urging "conservatives all over
the country" to tell Frist "that he needs to get on with it."

Dobson also said Republicans risked inflicting long-term damage on
their party if they failed to seize the moment - a time when Bush
still has the momentum of his reelection victory - to transform the
courts. He said they had just 18 months to act before Bush becomes a
"lame-duck president."

"If we let that 18 months get away from us and then maybe we got
Hillary to deal with or who knows what, we absolutely will not recover
from that," he said.

Perkins and Dobson laid out a history of court rulings they found
offensive, singling out the recent finding by the Supreme Court that
executing minors was unconstitutional. They criticized Justice Anthony
M. Kennedy's majority opinion, noting that the Republican appointee had
cited the laws of foreign nations that, Dobson said, applied the same
standard as "the most liberal countries in Europe."

"What about Latin America, South America, Central America? What about
China? What about Africa?" Dobson asked. "They pick and choose the
international law that they want and then apply it here as though we're
somehow accountable to Europe. I resent that greatly."

DeLay has also criticized Kennedy for citing foreign laws in that
opinion, calling the practice "outrageous."

As part of the discussion, Perkins and Dobson referred to remarks by
Dobson earlier this year at a congressional dinner in which he singled
out the use by one group of the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants
in a video that Dobson said promoted a homosexual agenda.

Dobson was ridiculed for his comments, which some critics interpreted
to mean the evangelist had determined that the cartoon character was
gay.

Dobson said the beating he took in the media, coming after his
appearance on the cover of newsmagazines hailing his prominence in
Bush's reelection, proved that the press will only seek to tear him
down.

"This will not be the last thing that you read about that makes me look
ridiculous," he said.

---
http://www.ElmerFudd.US/ http://www.notserver.com/
Scientology crooks: http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html
http://www.0-48.preclear.ru/ http://PerkinsTragedy.org
http://www.rightard.org/

2 Evangelicals Want to Strip Courts' Funds

By Peter Wallsten Times Staff Writer

http://tinyurl.com/dzmoj

WASHINGTON - Evangelical Christian leaders, who have been working
closely with senior Republican lawmakers to place conservative judges
in the federal courts, have also been exploring ways to punish sitting
jurists and even entire courts viewed as hostile to their cause.

An audio recording obtained by the Los Angeles Times features two of
the nation's most influential evangelical leaders, at a private
conference with supporters, laying out strategies to rein in judges,
such as stripping funding from their courts in an effort to hinder
their work.

The discussion took place during a Washington conference last month
that included addresses by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist, who discussed efforts to bring a more
conservative cast to the courts.

Frist and DeLay have not publicly endorsed the evangelical groups'
proposed actions. But the taped discussion among evangelical leaders
provides a glimpse of the road map they are drafting as they work with
congressional Republicans to achieve a judiciary that sides with them
on abortion, same-sex marriage and other elements of their agenda.

"There's more than one way to skin a cat, and there's more than one way
to take a black robe off the bench," said Tony Perkins, president of
the conservative Family Research Council, according to an audiotape of
a March 17 session. The tape was provided to The Times by the advocacy
group Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

DeLay has spoken generally about one of the ideas the leaders discussed
in greater detail: using legislative tactics to withhold money from
courts.

"We set up the courts. We can unset the courts. We have the power of
the purse," DeLay said at an April 13 question-and-answer session with
reporters.

The leaders present at the March conference, including Perkins and
James C. Dobson, founder of the influential group Focus on the Family,
have been working with Frist to eliminate the filibuster for judicial
nominations, a legislative tool that has allowed Senate Democrats to
stall 10 of President Bush's nominations. Frist is scheduled to appear,
via a taped statement, during a satellite broadcast to churches
nationwide Sunday that the Family Research Council has organized to
build support for the Bush nominees.

The March conference featuring Dobson and Perkins showed that the
evangelical leaders, in addition to working to place conservative
nominees on the bench, have been trying to find ways to remove certain
judges.

Perkins said that he had attended a meeting with congressional leaders
a week earlier where the strategy of stripping funding from certain
courts was "prominently" discussed. "What they're thinking of is not
only the fact of just making these courts go away and re-creating them
the next day but also defunding them," Perkins said.

He said that instead of undertaking the long process of trying to
impeach judges, Congress could use its appropriations authority to
"just take away the bench, all of his staff, and he's just sitting out
there with nothing to do."

These curbs on courts are "on the radar screen, especially of
conservatives here in Congress," he said.

Dobson, who emerged last year as one of the evangelical movement's most
important political leaders, named one potential target: the
California-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Very few people know this, that the Congress can simply disenfranchise
a court," Dobson said. "They don't have to fire anybody or impeach them
or go through that battle. All they have to do is say the 9th Circuit
doesn't exist anymore, and it's gone."

Robert Stevenson, a spokesman for Frist, said Thursday that the Senate
leader does not agree with the idea of defunding courts or shutting
them down, pointing to Frist's comments earlier this month embracing a
"fair and independent judiciary." A spokesman for DeLay declined to
comment.

The remarks by Perkins and Dobson drew fire from Barry W. Lynn,
executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and
State, who charged that the two leaders were more brazen in such
private encounters with supporters than their more genteel public
images portray.

"To talk about defunding judges is just about the most bizarre, radical
approach to controlling the outcome of court decisions that you can
imagine," Lynn said.



Frist is expected to try as early as next week to push the Senate to
ban filibusters on judicial nominations - a move so explosive that
Democrats are calling it the "nuclear option."

Democrats have been using the filibuster to block 10 of Bush's appeals
court nominees who they believe are too extreme in their views, but the
skirmishes are considered a preview of a highly anticipated fight over
replacing the ailing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, whose
retirement is considered imminent.

"Folks, I am telling you all that it is going to be the mother of all
battles," Dobson predicted at the March 17 meeting. "And it's right
around the corner. I mean, Justice Rehnquist could resign at any time,
and the other side is mobilized to the teeth."

The remarks by Perkins and Dobson reflect the passion felt by
Christians who helped fuel Bush's reelection last year with massive
turnout in battleground states, and who also spurred Republican gains
in the Senate and House.

Claiming a role by the movement in the GOP gains, Dobson concluded:
"We've got a right to hold them accountable for what happens here."

Both leaders chastised what Perkins termed "squishy" and "weak"
Republican senators who have not wholeheartedly endorsed ending
Democrats' power to filibuster judicial nominees. They said these
included moderates such as Sens. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of
Maine, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania
and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. They also grumbled that Sens. Mitch
McConnell of Kentucky and George Allen of Virginia needed prodding.

"We need to shake these guys up," Perkins said.

Said Dobson: "Sometimes it's just amazing to me that they seem to
forget how they got here."

Even Bush was not spared criticism. Dobson and Perkins encouraged their
supporters to demand that the president act as aggressively on the
judiciary as he has for his Social Security overhaul.

"These are not Bill Frist's nominees; these are President George W.
Bush's nominees," Perkins said. "He needs to be out there putting
pressure on these senators who are weak on this issue and standing in
obstruction to these nominations," he said.

Dobson chided Frist, a likely 2008 presidential contender, for not
acting sooner on the filibuster issue, urging "conservatives all over
the country" to tell Frist "that he needs to get on with it."

Dobson also said Republicans risked inflicting long-term damage on
their party if they failed to seize the moment - a time when Bush
still has the momentum of his reelection victory - to transform the
courts. He said they had just 18 months to act before Bush becomes a
"lame-duck president."

"If we let that 18 months get away from us and then maybe we got
Hillary to deal with or who knows what, we absolutely will not recover
from that," he said.

Perkins and Dobson laid out a history of court rulings they found
offensive, singling out the recent finding by the Supreme Court that
executing minors was unconstitutional. They criticized Justice Anthony
M. Kennedy's majority opinion, noting that the Republican appointee had
cited the laws of foreign nations that, Dobson said, applied the same
standard as "the most liberal countries in Europe."

"What about Latin America, South America, Central America? What about
China? What about Africa?" Dobson asked. "They pick and choose the
international law that they want and then apply it here as though we're
somehow accountable to Europe. I resent that greatly."

DeLay has also criticized Kennedy for citing foreign laws in that
opinion, calling the practice "outrageous."

As part of the discussion, Perkins and Dobson referred to remarks by
Dobson earlier this year at a congressional dinner in which he singled
out the use by one group of the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants
in a video that Dobson said promoted a homosexual agenda.

Dobson was ridiculed for his comments, which some critics interpreted
to mean the evangelist had determined that the cartoon character was
gay.

Dobson said the beating he took in the media, coming after his
appearance on the cover of newsmagazines hailing his prominence in
Bush's reelection, proved that the press will only seek to tear him
down.

"This will not be the last thing that you read about that makes me look
ridiculous," he said.

---
http://www.ElmerFudd.US/ http://www.notserver.com/
Scientology crooks: http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html
http://www.0-48.preclear.ru/ http://PerkinsTragedy.org
http://www.rightard.org/