CWA Tells Democrats: Drive-by Distortion and Deception are Not Debate     5/18/2005

Washington, D.C. -- Majority leader Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) will bring to the Senate floor today the nomination of Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. President Bush announced her nomination four years ago.

“Democrats’ willful distortions of Justice Owen’s record and qualifications should not be tolerated by Republicans during the debates,” said Jan LaRue, Concerned Women for America’s chief counsel. “There’s no excuse for allowing this remarkable jurist to twist-in-the wind as she’s attacked on the Senate floor. Dainty rebuttal won’t cut it. When Democrats sacrifice truth for political gain, it’s time to call it what it is.”

On May 9, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said: “Priscilla Owens [sic] is just the type of person that the Founding Fathers did not want on the bench because she is just the type of person who says, when she becomes a judge: MY views are more important than the whole view of the elected legislature or than decades or even centuries of judicial decisions and thinking. She feels she is so right, that just because she’s right, she can overturn laws and decisions. If you think Priscilla Owens [sic] is a mainstream conservative, look again.”

“Schumer and company think a mainstream judge is the Clinton appointee who just declared Nebraska’s marriage amendment unconstitutional despite the will of 70 percent of Nebraskans,” LaRue added. “Worse yet, Schumer is now trying to blame his absurdities about Owen on the Founders.”

In 2000, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington) objected to a “glass ceiling” that prevented women judicial nominees from being confirmed: “This delay is especially troubling when we look at what’s happened to women and minorities. … Unfortunately, Republicans have created a glass ceiling that blocks the confirmation of women judges. It’s time to dismantle that glass ceiling and let qualified jurists take their place on the bench. We are here to send a message to the Republican leadership: Confirm the judicial nominees pending before the Senate.” (Sen. Murray, Press Conference, September 14, 2000)

“When it comes to Priscilla Owen, Murray needs to Windex her ‘glass ceiling’ because she’s apparently lost sight of it,” LaRue concluded.

For Information Contact:
Valerie Mosher
(202) 488-7000
media.cwfa.org

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