Save the Supreme Court from Frist's pre-emptive strike!

[tommcintyre]

People For the American Way
----- Original Message -----
From: PFAW Activist Network<mailto:[e-mail]>
To:
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 7:05 AM
Subject: Save the Supreme Court from Frist's pre-emptive strike!



PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY January 25, 2005



"What I want to see is the filibuster rule changed at the beginning of this new
Congress."
-- Christian Coalition Founder Pat Robertson, 11/8/04
"One way or another, the filibusters of judicial nominations must
end."
-- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), 11/11/04
"Majority Leader Bill Frist has announced that if Democrats
filibuster the nominations he expects to bring to the floor next
month, he'll take action."
-- Wall Street Journal, 1/24/05


Dear ,

Sign the
petition<http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M66833426151982311029565>
to the Senate opposing the elimination of the filibuster. We
need every Democrat and Independent along with six
Republicans to thwart the Radical Right's ultimate
power-grab.

Forward the
petition<http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M66836696151982311029565>
to friends, especially those who are constituents of the key
GOP senators below.

Make a
donation<http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M66833496151982311029565>
to support on-the-ground campaigns in the home-states of
target senators.


--------------------------------------------------------

Both parties use the filibuster - find out the
facts<http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M66836686151982311029565>
about this historic Senate tool.


PRINCIPLE OVER PARTY
We must have bipartisan support for the filibuster to win
this fight. Here are the GOP senators most likely to choose
principle over party.

Alaska
Sen. Ted Stevens and
Sen. Lisa Murkowski

Arizona
Sen. John McCain

Indiana
Sen. Richard Lugar

Iowa
Sen. Charles Grassley

Kansas
Sen. Pat Roberts

Maine
Sen. Olympia Snowe and
Sen. Susan Collins

Mississippi
Sen. Thad Cochran

Nebraska
Sen. Chuck Hagel

New Hampshire
Sen. John Sununu

New Mexico
Sen. Pete Domenici

Ohio
Sen. Mike DeWine and
Sen. George Voinovich

Oregon
Sen. Gordon Smith

Pennsylvania
Sen. Arlen Specter

Rhode Island
Sen. Lincoln Chafee

Virginia
Sen. John Warner


The terrifying truth is, we could lose our fight against a right-wing
Supreme Court takeover before a vacancy and nomination occur. And it
could happen as early as next month.

Your help is needed at this critical moment. You can do three things
right now:

a.. Sign the
petition<http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M66833586151982311029565>
opposing elimination of the filibuster, to be delivered to senators
whose votes we need to win this fight.
a.. Forward<http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M66836706151982311029565>
this call to action to your friends and family members.
a.. Donate<http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M66833576151982311029565>
to the Supreme Court Defense Fund.
In a grab for ultimate power over the Supreme Court, Radical Right
leaders like Pat Robertson, James Dobson and Jerry Falwell are urging
senators to make a pre-emptive strike that will leave Americans unable
to defend against far-right Court nominees. Their target is the
200-year-old tradition of the Senate filibuster, the tool that empowers
41 or more senators to prevent a narrow majority from abusing its power.
It was used last Congress to keep a number of President Bush's most
extreme judicial nominees off the bench. In a situation where one party
controls the White House and the Senate, the filibuster is one of the
only ways to encourage genuine bipartisan cooperation and compromise on
important issues.

If the filibuster is eliminated, Bush, Cheney and 50 senators could
steamroll up to four new justices onto the Court -- even one or two
could create a right-wing majority that would undermine the Voting
Rights Act of 1965, gut the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts, overturn Roe
v. Wade, and much, much more.

Stand up against this unprecedented power-grab.
Sign the petition
now<http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M66838146151982311029565> and
forward it to your friends and family.

The Radical Right has a name that captures how destructive their plan
is. It's called the "nuclear option," and the man with his finger on the
button is one of the most extreme members of the Senate, Majority Leader
Bill Frist. With his perfect voting-record scores from the Christian
Coalition, Family Research Council and other far-right groups, Frist is
just the man Robertson and company want leading this charge.

Frist needs the votes of half the Senate plus Vice President Cheney's
tie-breaker to succeed in this bare-knuckles move to eliminate the
filibuster. That means we must win the votes of all 44 Democratic
senators, the one Independent, and at least six courageous Republicans
to stop him. Fortunately, there are some Republicans who
understand<http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M66836716151982311029565>
how dangerous it is to sacrifice this historic check on the abuse of
power for short-term political gain. But they will be under enormous
pressure from Frist, Bush, Karl Rove and their allies. Not a single vote
can be taken for granted.

Sign the petition
today!<http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M66838156151982311029565> We'll
send copies to your senators and hand-deliver the petitions to the
Republican senators we believe may be willing to resist this attack on
such an important part of our system of checks and balances.

Be sure to forward the petition to friends and family who are the
constituents of the GOP senators listed to the right.

But we can't stop this threat with a barrage of petitions alone.
Organized ground campaigns, paid media and public events are crucial in
the 15 states listed. And we have weeks, not months, to do it.

Please make a donation to our Supreme Court Defense
Fund.<http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M66836726151982311029565>

Be as generous as you can. Your dollars can go a long way in many of
these rarely targeted states, but our field and media teams need these
resources quickly. The launch of the "nuclear option" is not tied to a
Supreme Court vacancy. Any filibuster against a judicial nominee could
be used as an excuse to abolish all that separates us from the Supreme
Court of Pat Robertson's dreams.

We must stop Senator Frist's power-grab, we must protect the Court, and
we must do it now. There is no other battle that means more to the next
40 years than this one.

Thank you,
Ralph G. Neas
President
People For the American Way


PFAW © 2005

Important Links:
Petition -
http://pfaw.kintera.org/savethefilibuster/<http://pfaw.kintera.org/savethefilibuster/>
Donate -
http://pfaw.kintera.org/savethefilibusterdonations<http://pfaw.kintera.org/savethefilibusterdonations>
More Resources -
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=17707<http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M66850806151982311029565>