The Conservative smear operation turns its attention to Leahy
Posted on Thursday, December 13 @ 10:17:35 EST
By Noelle Straub, Hill News
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has become the target of strong
attacks from conservatives since his criticism of the Bush administration's plan to try accused
alien terrorists in military tribunals and otherwise undermine their civil liberties.
One conservative publication vilified Leahy as "enabling" Osama bin Laden and terrorists.
Leahy's office has been flooded with angry and hateful calls in recent weeks.
"Someone in Washington pushed the button to activate the far-right political network," said
David Carle, Leahy's spokesman. "Thousands of folks were given scripts and asked to call, and
there also were many hate calls and messages, including those in print."
Leahy has himself been a terrorist target. He has had security with him at all times since a letter
addressed to him was found filled with anthrax spores, similar to the one opened in the office of
Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).
Leahy has drawn the ire of the conservative community for not moving more rapidly on
President Bush's judicial and departmental nominees and for calling Attorney General John
Ashcroft and other Department of Justice officials before his panel to answer questions about
administration initiatives.
Human Events, a national conservative weekly publication, ran an article about Leahy in its
Dec. 3 issue with a prominent headline, "Osama's Enabler in Congress."
"It is Leahy who would put Americans at greater risk of terrorism," the Human Events article
alleges. "Why? Not because he has legitimate complaints -- he doesn't -- but because he has a
partisan and ideological axe to grind into John Ashcroft's back."
John Gizzi, the political editor of Human Events, explained the headline by saying that Leahy
has left the administration understaffed by confirming too few nominees, and that he
"repeatedly has dogged the administration at every turn."
Gizzi said he didn't know of any American who wants to put another person in danger from
terrorists. But he added, "I'm saying that by his actions, not just on the appointments but the
way he has been an obstructionist with the anti-terrorist bill, that, as they say in Hollywood,
that if he's not, he's doing a great job of faking it. ... His actions are shooting craps with destiny."
Other prominent conservative groups said they also could see some justification for the
headline.
"I wouldn't phrase it that way, but I understand what their level of frustration is, too," said
Damon Ansell, vice president for policy at Americans for Tax Reform. "I think you'll find that
our organization and most organizations are getting tired of these hearings."
Ansell was referring to Judiciary Committee hearings in which Department of Justice officials
testified, including a highly publicized hearing last week featuring Ashcroft.
But Carle defended his boss' oversight role.
"Whether or not the administration's military order on tribunals and all the other unilateral
actions are popular or unpopular right now, oversight hearings are important in helping the
public and the Congress understand what they mean," Carle said. "The hearings already have led
the administration to clarify and scale back its intentions for using these broad new powers."
Ansell's group also targets the issue that Democrats and Republicans have traded barbs over for
months now -- whether Leahy is moving judicial and departmental nominees quickly enough.
"Sen. Leahy has one job and one job only right now in this new era of fighting a war --
chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee and therefore to make sure our judicial system is
well-stocked," Ansell said. "To date he has done an abhorrent job of that."
Minority Leader Trent Lott (D-Miss.) appealed to his base's concern about the issue when he
held a press briefing Monday with a chart labeled "Leahy's Quicksand" prominently displayed
behind him, showing that some nominees have been before the Judiciary Committee for as long
as 31 weeks without a hearing.
But Democrats strongly disagree with the criticism, arguing they are bringing up a large
number of nominees. "We will be exceeding by some degree the record set in other congresses
for six months of work on nominations," Daschle said last week.
Both sides are expected to hold dueling press conferences on the issue Wednesday, the
one-year anniversary of the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court decision. Several liberal women's
groups have been planning a media blitz in support of Leahy.
Tripp Baird, director of Senate relations with the conservative think-tank The Heritage
Foundation, also refused to condemn the "Osama's enabler" headline. "I didn't read it so I really
couldn't comment on it, but I think Osama bin Laden and terrorists laugh at us when they see us
bickering over a military tribunal, whether it's good or bad," he said.
Baird explained the harsh criticism from conservatives as stemming from Leahy's association
with liberal groups.
"The strategies seem right out of the playbook of the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union],"
Baird said. "I think that's why a lot of conservatives and Republicans in the Senate are critical of
him right now."
Thomas Jipping, director of the Judicial Selection Monitoring Project of the politically and
culturally conservative Free Congress Foundation, said his group has long been criticizing
Leahy for obstruction on judicial nominees.
"We work with about 900 grassroots groups," Jipping said. "To those groups, to the media and
to the Senate, we've tried to expose the tricks that he's using."
Reprinted from Hill News:
thehill.com
121201/leahy.shtm |
