Thomas Perrelli

Case In Point

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 3/12/2009 5:04 pm

Earlier today I wrote a post about how the Family Research Council was shifting its focus away from trying to influence public policy toward trying to get more right-wing politicians elected because, frankly, they can't do the former if they don't have the latter.

As an example of that, just take a look at today's confirmation vote for David Ogden.  As Josh noted, Ogden's nomination to be Deputy Attorney General unleashed a massive right-wing smear campaign to portray him as a tool of the pornography industry and with groups claiming that he'd be little more than an "ally for advocates for death and homosexuality."

FRC made Odgen a test for Republican senators, announcing that, for the first time ever, they were going to be counting the vote on his nomination on their annual scorecard for members of Congress and, as Greg Sargent reported, even sent a letter [PDF] to all GOP senators warning them that they would be watching how they voted.

Well, the vote was held earlier today and Ogden was confirmed by a vote of 65-28, with 10 Republicans voting for his confirmation. FRC also wanted the senators to vote against Thomas Perrelli's nomination to be Associate Attorney General and lost that one as well, by an even wider 70-20 vote.

Considering that the FRC could only muster 28 votes on Odgen and 20 votes on Perrelli after explicitly declaring that these nominations were a top-line priority and warning Republican senators that their votes would be noted on their permanent records, it's pretty good evidence that FRC's influence is on the wane at the moment and that their best hope for recapturing their former significance lies in working to ensure that candidates who share their right-wing views and will push their right-wing agenda get elected to Congress.

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 2/17/2009 6:51 pm
  • Ken Starr says that President Obama should be prepared for an "uphill battle over his Supreme Court nominees because as a senator he opposed two of President George W. Bush's Supreme Court picks."

  • Some group called Conservatives Students Activists and Policy Makers is having a joint conference during the upcoming CPAC that will reportedly feature Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds, Mike Huckabee, and Joe the Plumber. I have never even heard of them.

  • Richard Land continues to insist that pursuing stem-cell research makes us modern day cannibals.

  • Among the things that will probably not endear John McCain to the Religious Right is the fact that his daughter and former campaign manager are scheduled to speak at the Log Cabin Republican's convention in April.

  • The ACLJ claims that more than 200,000 people have signed onto its anti-Fairness Doctrine efforts and that it is preparing a legal strategy to fight it if it makes a comeback.

  • The Alliance Defense Fund has sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee urging it to reject the nominations of David Ogden, Elena Kagan, Dawn Johnsen, and Thomas Perrelli:
    • "We strongly urge the Senate Judiciary Committee to refrain from appointing David Ogden, Elena Kagan, Dawn Johnsen, and Thomas Perrelli to the Department of Justice, as they have each demonstrated throughout their careers a flawed understanding of the Constitution," said ADF Senior Counsel Gary McCaleb. "Their legal philosophies depart from mainstream views, their professional careers reflect a far-left ideology, and their involvement in the DOJ could jeopardize the proper enforcement of federal law and the development of constitutional doctrines."

The Amazing Transformation of the Judicial Confirmation Network

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 2/10/2009 3:21 pm

Again, I feel compelled to ask why the folks at the Judicial Confirmation Network, an organization created by Jay Sekulow back in 2005 in order to press for the confirmation of President Bush's judicial nominees, is suddenly leading the charge against President Obama's Department of Justice nominees.

Considering that the JCN was founded "to ensure that the confirmation process for all judicial nominees is fair and that every nominee sent to the full Senate receives an up or down vote," I fail to understand how it has suddenly establish itself as the voice of the Right in opposing David Ogden, Elena Kagan, Dawn Johnsen, and Thomas Perrelli - especially since, until last summer, the organization had been entirely non-existent for more than a year. 

But somehow they have and now, on top of yesterday's ad in "Roll Call" blasting Sen. Pat Leahy for moving too quickly on these nominations, the JCN's Wendy Long has an op-ed in The Washington Times making the same points:

The hearing last Thursday on the appointment of David Ogden to be deputy attorney general - the spot just under Attorney General Eric Holder - showed the Obama-Leahy confirmation strategy for legal appointees whose views are far outside the American mainstream.

...

Don't expect any more transparency today, when Elena Kagan, the Obama nominee for Solicitor General, takes the stand. She has charmed many in the conservative legal community, particularly in the academic world, by hiring a couple of conservative law professors in her capacity as dean of Harvard Law School.

...

The list of far-left extremists poised to take over the Justice Department goes on: Dawn Johnsen, nominated to serve as head of the Office of Legal Counsel, worked at NARAL and the ACLU. She opposes even modest regulation of abortion, such as partial-birth abortion bans and parental notification for teenagers. She's argued that restrictions on abortion violate the Thirteenth Amendment, which banned slavery, because "forced pregnancy requires a woman to provide continuous physical service to the fetus in order to further the state's asserted interest." Thomas Perrelli, nominated to be Assistant Attorney General, worked with the Florida ACLU to cut off basic food and water to Terri Schiavo, causing her to die, and later expressed disdain for the American people making laws through elected representatives that undo the work of legal extremists and activist courts.

President Obama promised "change" but has so far only nominated a slew of far-left activists to the Justice Department. If this is the change he believes in, President Obama will lose the support of the sensible moderates who voted for him.

The Right has a variety of these sorts of phony front groups who give themselves principled-sounding names and claim to represent thousands of grassroots activists, only to completely disappear once the issue on which they work is no longer on the front burner.  Anyone remember the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary? That one-woman "organization" hasn't so much as issued a press release since November 2006.

And the JCN appeared to be this same sort of group, spending millions of dollars to press for the confirmation of President Bush's judges and do away with the filibuster, only to more or less fall silent following the confirmation of Justice Samuel Alito.  But then it suddenly popped-up against last summer and has slowly managed to establish itself as the leading voice of opposition to President Obama's DOJ nominees, thereby positioning itself as the go-to organization once the battle over judicial nominees heats up again.  

At some point, the Judicial Confirmation Network will change its name and mission statement once it realizes that its Bush-era "principles" are now direct conflict with its current work - but until then, we are stuck with the odd reality that a group created to ensure that the confirmation process was fair and efficient is now committed to obstructing that same process.

The Right Tests Its Strength in Targeting DOJ Nominees

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 2/5/2009 12:02 pm

Earlier this week, we noted how, after eight years of claiming that the Senate's role was to rubber stamp the President's nominees, a gaggle of Religious Right activists had suddenly discovered the importance of checks and balances and the chance to provide an opportunity for "serious deliberation" on potential appointees ... mainly because they didn't like some of President Obama's choices to serve in the Justice Department.

A lot of this initial opposition was driven by the right-wing Catholic group Fidelis, which has been targeting David Ogden with press releases and reports and the Family Research Council, which has been targeting him as a man who "has built a career on representing views and companies that most Americans find repulsive."

And now it looks like the fight against Ogden, Dawn Johnsen, whom the Right hates because she worked at NARAL, and Thomas Perrelli, whom they hate for representing Terry Schiavo's husband, has become the first full-fledged test of the Religious Right's influence under the new president:

Christian conservatives are challenging President Barack Obama's picks for top Justice Department positions, charging that past clients like Playboy taint their resumes.

The criticism comes ahead of a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing Thursday for David Ogden, Obama's pick for deputy attorney general, the No. 2 position at the Justice Department.

...

The challenge to Obama's Justice picks come as conservative evangelicals seek to limit the power of the new Democratic administration and maintain their own within the Republican Party.

Some Republicans believe a tight embrace of social conservative values turns off independents and moderates, but many Christian right leaders resist compromise and contend that, if anything, the GOP has strayed too far from its principles.

For it's part, the Right is throwing all of its standard accusations at the nominees: 

"Ogden has been an activist in the support of a right to pornography, a right of abortion and the rights of homosexuals," said Patrick Trueman, a former Justice Department official during the first Bush presidency who is now in private practice.

"It isn't so much that he's represented pornographers or that he's been a porn attorney, but it's his world view, and his world view reflects President Obama's world view," said Trueman, echoing criticism from conservative activist groups like the American Family Association and Focus on the Family.

...

Tom Minnery, a vice president at Focus on the Family, charges that through the nominations, the new Democratic administration is not depoliticizing, but re-politicizing the Justice Department.

"They take our breath away the more we learn about these people," said Minnery. "This is left-wing politicization of the Justice Department. This is not a Justice Department that looks like America."

As a side note, Focus on the Family has an article up opposing these nominees on its CitizenLink website that carries this title: "Obama's Judicial Nominees Stand on Anti-Family Principles"

Memo to Focus: people nominated to work in the Justice Department are not "judicial nominees" - people nominated to be judges are. 

Does The Right Think It Can Sink Perrelli With Schiavo?

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 1/6/2009 5:04 pm

The Washington Times reports that some on the right are upset about Thomas Perrelli being named  Associate Attorney General at the Department of Justice because he played a role in the Terri Schiavo debacle:

But his high-profile role in the Schiavo case in 2005 stirred instant vitriol among pro-life and socially conservative activists who ordinarily focus their energies on judicial nominees.

Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, derided Mr. Perrelli's selection as "just another death-peddler Obama has added to his list of nominees." She said he's earned the nickname among pro-lifers of "Piranha Perrelli" for his work on the case.

Tom McClusky, vice president for government affairs at the Family Research Council, said several end-of-life issues could make their way to the federal level in the next four years and having Mr. Perrelli at the department means pro-life causes would have a tougher time winning those debates.

"If the Justice Department isn't going to do anything about it, the states, what's to stop them from cases like Schiavo and even worse cases," Mr. McClusky said.

First of all, I wish that more papers would seek quotes from the Traditional Values Coalition because they are one of the few right-wing groups that willingly come across as radical and beligerent when given the opportunity to share their views.  Secondly, as Think Progress points out, if the Right thinks that they can make hay out of Perrelli's role in the Schiavo situation, they have apparently forgotten what a complete disaster that spectacle was for them:

Reviving the Schiavo case may not be the best decision. After all, 63 percent of the public supported the removal of the feeding tube. More importantly, 70 percent said it was inappropriate for the federal government to involve itself in the case, and 67 percent believed that these politicians were “trying to keep Schiavo alive are doing so more for political advantage than out of concern for her or for the principles involved.”

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Thomas Perrelli Posts Archive

Case In Point
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 03/12/2009, 5:04pm
Earlier today I wrote a post about how the Family Research Council was shifting its focus away from trying to influence public policy toward trying to get more right-wing politicians elected because, frankly, they can't do the former if they don't have the latter.As an example of that, just take a look at today's confirmation vote for David Ogden.  As Josh noted, Ogden's nomination to be Deputy Attorney General unleashed a massive right-wing smear campaign to portray him as a tool of the pornography industry and with groups claiming that he'd be little more than an "ally for... MORE >
Right Wing Leftovers
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 02/17/2009, 6:51pm
Ken Starr says that President Obama should be prepared for an "uphill battle over his Supreme Court nominees because as a senator he opposed two of President George W. Bush's Supreme Court picks."Some group called Conservatives Students Activists and Policy Makers is having a joint conference during the upcoming CPAC that will reportedly feature Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds, Mike Huckabee, and Joe the Plumber. I have never even heard of them.Richard Land continues to insist that pursuing stem-cell research makes us modern day cannibals.Among the things that will probably not... MORE >
The Amazing Transformation of the Judicial Confirmation Network
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 02/10/2009, 3:21pm
Again, I feel compelled to ask why the folks at the Judicial Confirmation Network, an organization created by Jay Sekulow back in 2005 in order to press for the confirmation of President Bush's judicial nominees, is suddenly leading the charge against President Obama's Department of Justice nominees.Considering that the JCN was founded "to ensure that the confirmation process for all judicial nominees is fair and that every nominee sent to the full Senate receives an up or down vote," I fail to understand how it has suddenly establish itself as the voice of the Right in... MORE >
The Right Tests Its Strength in Targeting DOJ Nominees
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 02/05/2009, 12:02pm
Earlier this week, we noted how, after eight years of claiming that the Senate's role was to rubber stamp the President's nominees, a gaggle of Religious Right activists had suddenly discovered the importance of checks and balances and the chance to provide an opportunity for "serious deliberation" on potential appointees ... mainly because they didn't like some of President Obama's choices to serve in the Justice Department.A lot of this initial opposition was driven by the right-wing Catholic group Fidelis, which has been targeting David Ogden with press releases and reports... MORE >
Does The Right Think It Can Sink Perrelli With Schiavo?
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 01/06/2009, 5:04pm
The Washington Times reports that some on the right are upset about Thomas Perrelli being named  Associate Attorney General at the Department of Justice because he played a role in the Terri Schiavo debacle:But his high-profile role in the Schiavo case in 2005 stirred instant vitriol among pro-life and socially conservative activists who ordinarily focus their energies on judicial nominees.Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, derided Mr. Perrelli's selection as "just another death-peddler Obama has added to his list of nominees." She said he'... MORE >