Michael Gaynor
JCN and Wendy Long: Not this time, Mr. Neas!
By Michael Gaynor
In 1987, Ralph Neas, President of People For the American Way, chaired the successful bipartisan effort by the 300-organization Block Bork Coalition to block the confirmation of Robert Bork, then a federal appellate judge, to become an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. For his sinister, but successful, efforts, Ralph was named ABC's "Person of the Week."
Ralph's biography on his organization's website boasts that "Ralph is a consistent presence in the national media, interviewed regularly by the major TV, radio and print media, including: ABC's Nightline; CBS Sunday Morning; NBC's Today Show, ABC's This Week; PBS Lehrer News Hour; the nightly news shows of ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and Fox; National Public Radio; cable television and radio talk shows; and prominent national, regional and local newspapers," and "has been profiled in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Congressional Quarterly and The Baltimore Sun.
Ralph IS a darling of the biased, leftist media.
These days the scalp that Ralph is out to take (figuratively speaking) belongs to Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr., the brilliant, thoughtful, experienced jurist who President Bush nominated to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and the American Bar Association unanimously found "well qualified."
Ralph's ridiculous rant on the Alito nomination: "President Bush put the demands of his far-right political base above Americans' constitutional rights and legal protections by nominating federal appeals court Judge Samuel Alito to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor."
Ralph, it's not 1987. This time there is a Judicial Confirmation Network (www.judicialnetwork.com), a self-described "organization of citizens joined together to support the confirmation of highly qualified individuals to the Supreme Court of the United States" and " to ensure that the confirmation process for all judicial nominees is fair and that every nominee sent to the full Senate receives an up or down vote."
The Judicial Confirmation Network's creed:
"We believe that the qualifications desirable in a nominee include:
"We believe that a judge or a justice should not use the power of the court to impose his or her personal or political agenda on the people."
BIG TROUBLE for Ralph! (He's much more effective when the process is UNfair and his specious charges and subtle spin are simply taken at face value rather than swiftly seen for what they really are and skillfully taken apart. And Ralph and his ilk need activist judges to impose their secular extremist agenda like a vampire needs blood.)
Wendy Long, counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, makes it a point to personally refute falsehoods concocted to block Judge Alito's confirmation and unhesitatingly appears to debate Ralph (who is much more effective against straw women than strong women).
Wendy on the Alito nomination: "Judge Alito is the best there is. The Democrat-controlled Senate recognized these qualities in Judge Alito when it unanimously confirmed him to the court of appeals."
There's room for debate that Judge Alito is "the best there is," of course. (Having watching Wendy drub Ralph, feminist star Naomi Wolf and Clintonista Assistant Attorney General Anthony Fois during cable news debates on the Alito nomination, I wonder whether Wendy is even better than the superb jurist she is championing.)
But, it is not plausibly deniable that Judge Alito is one of the best and, as usual, Wendy provided a material fact that should be generally known and exposes the anti-Alitoists as the extremists as it becomes known: that a Democrat-controlled Senate unanimously confirmed Judge Alito as a federal appellate judge.
Even more importantly, Wendy clearly, concisely and compellingly pointed out what is at the heart of the opposition to Judge Alito: "A liberal minority needs federal judges to advance their agenda — allowing child pornography as free speech, mandating same-sex marriage, removing 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance, banning school prayer and preventing the death penalty for murderers and terrorists — because they can't win these issues at the ballot box."
Ralph, this time you deserve an award for debating Wendy. NOT for winning. Wendy wins easily. For showing up. So that Wendy can illuminate the darkness you and yours create and educate the American people.
© Michael Gaynor
In 1987, Ralph Neas, President of People For the American Way, chaired the successful bipartisan effort by the 300-organization Block Bork Coalition to block the confirmation of Robert Bork, then a federal appellate judge, to become an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. For his sinister, but successful, efforts, Ralph was named ABC's "Person of the Week."
Ralph's biography on his organization's website boasts that "Ralph is a consistent presence in the national media, interviewed regularly by the major TV, radio and print media, including: ABC's Nightline; CBS Sunday Morning; NBC's Today Show, ABC's This Week; PBS Lehrer News Hour; the nightly news shows of ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and Fox; National Public Radio; cable television and radio talk shows; and prominent national, regional and local newspapers," and "has been profiled in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Congressional Quarterly and The Baltimore Sun.
Ralph IS a darling of the biased, leftist media.
These days the scalp that Ralph is out to take (figuratively speaking) belongs to Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr., the brilliant, thoughtful, experienced jurist who President Bush nominated to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and the American Bar Association unanimously found "well qualified."
Ralph's ridiculous rant on the Alito nomination: "President Bush put the demands of his far-right political base above Americans' constitutional rights and legal protections by nominating federal appeals court Judge Samuel Alito to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor."
Ralph, it's not 1987. This time there is a Judicial Confirmation Network (www.judicialnetwork.com), a self-described "organization of citizens joined together to support the confirmation of highly qualified individuals to the Supreme Court of the United States" and " to ensure that the confirmation process for all judicial nominees is fair and that every nominee sent to the full Senate receives an up or down vote."
The Judicial Confirmation Network's creed:
"We believe that the qualifications desirable in a nominee include:
- integrity
- common sense
- education and experience in the law; and
- devotion to the Constitution
"We believe that a judge or a justice should not use the power of the court to impose his or her personal or political agenda on the people."
BIG TROUBLE for Ralph! (He's much more effective when the process is UNfair and his specious charges and subtle spin are simply taken at face value rather than swiftly seen for what they really are and skillfully taken apart. And Ralph and his ilk need activist judges to impose their secular extremist agenda like a vampire needs blood.)
Wendy Long, counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, makes it a point to personally refute falsehoods concocted to block Judge Alito's confirmation and unhesitatingly appears to debate Ralph (who is much more effective against straw women than strong women).
Wendy on the Alito nomination: "Judge Alito is the best there is. The Democrat-controlled Senate recognized these qualities in Judge Alito when it unanimously confirmed him to the court of appeals."
There's room for debate that Judge Alito is "the best there is," of course. (Having watching Wendy drub Ralph, feminist star Naomi Wolf and Clintonista Assistant Attorney General Anthony Fois during cable news debates on the Alito nomination, I wonder whether Wendy is even better than the superb jurist she is championing.)
But, it is not plausibly deniable that Judge Alito is one of the best and, as usual, Wendy provided a material fact that should be generally known and exposes the anti-Alitoists as the extremists as it becomes known: that a Democrat-controlled Senate unanimously confirmed Judge Alito as a federal appellate judge.
Even more importantly, Wendy clearly, concisely and compellingly pointed out what is at the heart of the opposition to Judge Alito: "A liberal minority needs federal judges to advance their agenda — allowing child pornography as free speech, mandating same-sex marriage, removing 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance, banning school prayer and preventing the death penalty for murderers and terrorists — because they can't win these issues at the ballot box."
Ralph, this time you deserve an award for debating Wendy. NOT for winning. Wendy wins easily. For showing up. So that Wendy can illuminate the darkness you and yours create and educate the American people.
© Michael Gaynor
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