"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast" -Oscar Wilde |
"The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth, shall be watered also himself." -- Proverbs 11:25 |
The White House and the Senate Republican leadership are pushing back against pressure from some of their conservative allies about the coming Supreme Court nomination, urging them to stop attacking Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales as a potential nominee and to tone down their talk of a culture war.
In a series of conference calls on Tuesday and over the last several days, Republican Senate aides encouraged conservative groups to avoid emphasizing the searing cultural issues that social conservatives see at the heart of the court fight, subjects like abortion, public support for religion and same-sex marriage, participants said.
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Gary Bauer, president of American Values and a Christian conservative candidate for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination, said, "A lot of people feel that the administration shouldn't be reluctant to talk about the values we hope the nominee will embrace."
"If all my side does is talk about process - 'we want a fair hearing, etc.' - while Ted Kennedy is talking about 'we are not going to let somebody on the court who is going to take away the rights of individuals,' as silly as I think that is, it will affect the way people think about the battle," Mr. Bauer said.
Tom Minnery, director of public policy for Focus on the Family, an evangelical group and broadcaster based in Colorado Springs, blamed leftist advocates for the "decibel level" of judicial confirmation debates and said his group planned to continue to address mainly social and cultural issues "to get our constituents to understand how important this battle is."
Officials of several Christian conservative groups, who did not want to be identified because of what they said was pressure by the White House, said they were continuing to urge the president not to nominate Mr. Gonzales.
Tuesday evening, Focus on the Family transmitted an e-mail message to supporters with the title, "Bush Defends Gonzales. Some conservatives wonder if attorney general is right for Supreme Court."
Other groups circulated a statement from a prominent opponent of abortion rights, C. J. Willkie, describing what he said were private statements from Mr. Gonzales on the subject in an effort to discredit him further with social conservatives.