They're evil...
Look at this...
Specter Calls for Pulling Anti-Roberts Ad By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - An abortion-rights group should withdraw a "blatantly untrue and unfair" ad opposing Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, says Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), himself an abortion-rights supporter as well as leader of the panel that will consider the nomination.
Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that will question Roberts next month, spoke out Thursday against the ad running in Maine and Rhode Island targeting President Bush's nominee.
The ad by NARAL Pro-Choice America criticizes Roberts and links him with violent anti-abortion protesters because of the anti-abortion briefs he worked on as a government lawyer. Specter called that "blatantly untrue and unfair."
"The NARAL advertisement is not helpful to the pro-choice cause which I support," the Pennsylvania Republican said in a letter to NARAL President Nancy Keenan.
There was no immediate reaction from NARAL.
The ad has been airing on broadcast television in Maine and Rhode Island and on CNN.
At least one television station is now refusing to run the ad. Mike Young, vice president and general manager of WABI in Bangor, said his station ran the ad before deciding to pull it Thursday after receiving a challenge from the Republican National Committee.
"After careful thoughtful analysis, we determined the ad was at worst false, and at best misleading," he said.
Conservatives and Roberts supporters have been calling all week for NARAL to pull the ad.
"This ad grossly distorts the record of John Roberts from start to finish," said former Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "It has only one goal: to associate John Roberts with violent extremists."
Senate Democrats have not taken a position on the ad. Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record) of Vermont, the Judiciary Committee's top Democrat, told The Associated Press that ads for and against Roberts won't sway senators weighing the confirmation.
"There has been much furor over these ad campaigns, but I believe that television advertisements are not the point, and should not be the focus of debate or discussion," Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., said Thursday. But Schumer said he would ask Roberts about the constitutionality of abortion clinic protesting at his confirmation hearing.
In 1991, Roberts helped write — on behalf of the government — a Supreme Court brief in Bray v. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic. In that case, the court limited the federal help available to abortion clinic owners who seek to stop blockades by protesters.
Meanwhile, in documents released by the National Archives Thursday, Roberts — then special assistant to Attorney General William French Smith and assigned to help then-high court nominee Sandra Day O'Connor through her confirmation process — wrote O'Connor in 1981 to rebut a university professor's memo.
The memo argued that senators can only determine a nominee's views through asking specific questions about specific cases. In the memo, the professor wrote that answering those questions would not put a justice in danger of having to be disqualified from hearing future cases on that subject if it was made clear the nominee was not promising to vote one way or the other.
Roberts rejected the theory saying it could bring up impropriety and possibly disqualification issues later.
O'Connor later refused to talk to senators about specific cases and was confirmed by the Senate.
Roberts has been nominated by President Bush to replace O'Connor on the Supreme Court this fall.
___ news.yahoo.com |
