WASHINGTON, November 15, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pressure to keep Senator Arlen Specter out of the Chairmanship of the Senate Judicial Committee is beginning to have an effect. Since the first days after the US election, pro-life groups and advocates of the family have kept up a barrage of calls, faxes and e-mails demanding that the militantly pro-abortion and anti-Christian Specter not be placed in a position to block conservative candidates for the Supreme Court. Last week, Specter, after making weak assurances of impartiality, was embarrassed again when newspaper interviews and a fundraising letter he had written in 1995 showed him to be an active promoter of abortion and the anti-Christian movement in the US government.
Most of the action has been in the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist who has the power to stop the Specter appointment. This weekend Frist said in an interview on Fox News Sunday that Specter needs to prove to the Republican Party that he can be impartial.
When asked by host, Chris Wallace, “Do you support making Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter the new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee?” Frist said that it was an issue he would “begin to face really this week.” Frist called Specter’s remarks after the election, “disheartening.” He said that the chairman should not only “have a strong predisposition to supporting that nominee sent over by President Bush… to a Republican Judiciary Committee,” but also “on the floor of the United States Senate.”
Last week LifeSiteNews.com attempted to contact Frist and was unable to get through to the Senator’s office. A Frist spokesman from his Nashville office said that the Senator is being ‘slammed’ with calls and that no one has been able to get through.
The pressure is not going to let up soon however. In a media release today, the Union of Orthodox Rabbis and the Rabbinical Alliance of America have joined their voices to the mounting uproar against Specter. Rabbi Yehuda Levin will lead a delegation to Washington, November 16th, to demand that Specter not be appointed to the crucial position. Those wanting to add their voices to the campaign can join the protest at 1 p.m. EST outside of Dirksen Senate Office Building.
Chris Slattery, a pro-life leader from New York who is helping to organize the protest said, “The lives of many millions of unborn children are in the hands of future Supreme Court justices. Sen. Specter ‘Borked’ Judge Robert Bork and now all judicial conservatives are in his sights. He must not become chairman or our children are in peril.”
To Contact Senator Frist: Office of Senator Bill Frist 461 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 202-224-3344 202-228-1264 (fax)
Previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/nov/04111101.html hw