by Kagro X
Late Friday, we heard rumors about Bill Frist possibly reviving the nuclear option during this coming week. Much speculation ensued, of course. Why next week? And for what nomination? (Assuming it is a nomination, and not a sly joke about, say, the energy bill.)
Whether or not the next Supreme Court nomination battle begins this week, both sides are gearing up for a fight. Interestingly, though perhaps not surprisingly, the Republican side will fearture a battle within the battle: the fight to keep its kookier side under wraps. A struggle, that is, over whether the public face of the nomination fight will be that of Dr. Frist, or Mr. Dobson.
The Boston Globe reports:
As liberals and conservatives gear up for a multimillion-dollar battle over a potential Supreme Court vacancy, a growing divide on the right threatens the unity of President Bush's coalition: Conservative legal scholars want their evangelical allies to keep quiet and take a back seat in any nomination battle.
Evangelical attacks on judges over the Terri Schiavo feeding tube case backfired on Republicans, polls taken in the spring indicated. Now, many conservatives fear the religious right could hurt the party's cause by using faith-based arguments about abortion, same-sex marriage, and the separation of church and state to promote a Supreme Court nominee.
[...]
But grass-roots evangelicals, frustrated by GOP-appointed judges who have not overturned the Roe v. Wade abortion ruling, say they've learned their lesson from past Republican Supreme Court appointments David H. Souter, Anthony Kennedy, and Sandra Day O'Connor. They said they will demand clear positions from any conservative nominee.
But it looks like the game plan, at least in official circles, is to replay the Republican National Convention strategy. Quoting People for the American Way's Ralph Neas:
''What Boyden Gray, what [White House political adviser] Karl Rove, and what the people at Progress for America have to do is hide [Christian leaders] James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and that agenda," Neas said. ''They can't talk in truthful terms about what they want to do because there'd be no support for it."
And...
Lance deHaven-Smith, a political science professor at Florida State University, said GOP leaders will have to bring evangelicals under control after what he called the Schiavo ''screw-up" in his state.
''The Republican Party has shown an enormous ability to discipline the ranks at all levels and controlling the message," he said. ''They'll have to tell [evangelicals] that this is the price you pay for getting an appointment you'll be glad for -- you'll have to stay on the sidelines during the confirmation struggle."
But...
''I've got an e-mail list of 150,000 grass-roots activists, and as soon as the president nominates somebody they're going to want the first e-mail from me to be everything I know about how good this individual is likely to be on the values issues these people care about," said Gary Bauer, a longtime standard-bearer for the religious right.
Compared to the 2004 Republican Convention, when party leaders kept evangelicals off the air during primetime broadcasts, Bauer said, a Supreme Court fight is ''too big" to ''micromanage." He vowed to speak out about a nominee's willingness to overturn abortion rights and same-sex marriage.
And in the "what's Manuel Miranda doing besides hiding from investigators" portion of today's presentation, the Toledo Blade helpfully points out that:
Recently, a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Manuel Miranda split off to form another coalition, which was briefly the National Coalition to End Judicial Filibusters, and has now been renamed the Third Branch Conference.
Mr. Miranda said he wanted to create a group that was less centralized around Washington-based leaders and lawyers. Mr. Miranda said the Third Branch now holds weekly calls to strategize with groups as varied as anti-abortion groups in Maine to chambers of commerce groups in Michigan, and that the list is growing.
Does the name change reflect a new reality in which ending judicial filibusters is a discredited goal? Is it a rebranding effort, aimed at hiding from his last failed effort? Or is it just what Washington hacks do? Get fired from the public job for stealing the opposition's memos, sneak in the back door as a consultant for an ad hoc "National Coalition," and then scramble for a more permanent mandate in order to keep the donations (and your paychecks) flowing?
Don't strain yourselves answering that one.
Meanwhile, Manuel also trots his schtick out for the Globe:
Miranda argued that Republicans are far better off unleashing grass-roots leaders such as Dobson, because they can catalyze millions of voters to pressure Democratic senators in states that voted for Bush.
''The misunderstanding of the White House and Federalist Society coalition is that this is something that can be managed inside the Beltway," Miranda said. ''No. This is a national political issue and it has to be viewed as a national political campaign. That means national leaders have to have a role, and that is uncontrollably the case."
As does Paul Weyrich:
''We will have something to say about these things," said Paul Weyrich, chairman of the culturally conservative Free Congress Foundation. ''If MSNBC comes to me and says, 'We want to talk to you about judges,' do you think I'm going to say, 'Oh no, you have to talk to the Federalist Society?' "
But, then again...
The Federalist Society's Leo did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Focus on the Family declined to comment. But a range of faith-based group leaders, commenting both on and off the record, said they were determined to speak their minds, in the language that their followers understood, when the time came to do so.
So, the question will be how well the "suits" can keep the "roots" under wraps. The answers -- the real answers, not the ones given to the cameras about how they'll not be silenced, yadda, yadda -- will tell us a lot about whether What's the Matter with Kansas is still the matter.
''I've got an e-mail list of 150,000 grass-roots activists...." said Gary Bauer, a longtime standard-bearer for the religious right.
[Low whistle.] 150,000, eh? Man, that guy could be president some day.
Posted by: Kagro X | June 26, 2005 at 10:21
"...they were determined to speak their minds, in the language that their followers understood, when the time came to do so."
They'll speak in code (Dred Scott) so their followers can understand. We have to make sure to translate.
Posted by: DemFromCT | June 26, 2005 at 10:26
The theocrats have been holding their tongues and hiding in the background now for 25 years. During that time, they seem to have understood that being too public risked losing support for the Repubs. But it seems as though the whole "values voters won it for George" meme emboldened them in a way that has never happened before. It's hard for me to see them going back into the closet now.
And what will this mean to Frist? He's already invested most of his credibility into being a theocrat fave for '08. He's made it impossible for himself to move to the middle now. So how can keeping the theocrats under wraps coincide with his ambitions?
Posted by: kainah | June 26, 2005 at 18:34
I don't know, but I'm sure he's waiting by the Bat-Phone, waiting for instructions on how to do it from th' Crawford Commissioner.
Posted by: Kagro X | June 26, 2005 at 19:04