Christian Conservatives and the Supreme Court

11 August 2005 |permalink | email article

Justice Sunday II, a telecast this Sunday named after a similar telecast in April, is another major effort to energize churchgoers and Christian broadcasters and serve notice on Democrats by denouncing the Supreme Court as hostile to religion and families in its decisions about abortion, homosexuality and government support for religion. The first telecast depicted Democrats “as against people of faith,” another outrageous slander.

Rep. Tom Delay, the majority leader and close pal of just indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, is the headliner. He threatened earlier this year that judges, including those on the Supreme Court, would have “to answer for their behavior” after they declined to intervene in the case of Terry Schiavo. He has also blamed Congress as failing to exercise authority over courts.

What neither DeLay, or the major players on the telecast - Tony Perkins, James G. Dobson and Phyliss Schlafly - will acknowledge is that a majority of judges who made rulings on the Schiavo case were Republican appointees. So much for rank hypocrisy and judicial independence!

This spectacle is part of a larger campaign by Christian evangelicals to mobilize support for Judge John Roberts’ Supreme Court confirmation and other court battles as part of a decades-long cultural war. Some of the nominee’s nuanced opinions have already shaken the confidence of some influential wing nuts that he is not pure enough to deliver what they demand.

Imagine the angst within the White House, in the wake of conservative anger that Bush’s confidante, Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales, might have been the nominee, about a Christian armada setting sail in apparent disregard of requests not to inject talk of a cultural war into the Senate debate on Roberts, which begins Sept. 6.

Labor Solidarity Regained?

Since last month’s schism within organized labor, there has been considerable speculation about how much damage the split would do to state and city labor federations - and the impact of the breakup on the historic alliance between labor and the Democratic party.

The Service Employees International Union. the Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers - representing more than four million workers and nearly one-third of the membership - have pulled out because the leadership has not done enough to revive labor’s political clout. Another major union, Unite Here, has signaled its intention to walk.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, softening his initial hard line against defections, has now proposed allowing union locals in the defecting unions to rejoining state and city labor bodies as special affiliates is a signed a new “solidarity charter.” It’s a bold move with unpredictable consequences.

Locals within the disaffiliated unions who sign these solidarity charters can remain within city and state labor councils, with full voting rights. Locals would pay a 10 percent “solidarity fee” beyond their usual dues to help offset cost of services provided by the national AFL-CIO.

One test is how the solidarity ploy will impact the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, with 800,000 members representing 357 unions. Even before the schism, SEIU, with 40 percent of the membership, had been discussing an umbrella structure to work cooperatively with the Fed.

Arnold and the Stones

It’s the kind of big-ticket Hollywood fundraiser you might expect at Staples Center in L.A. But, no, it’s on Aug. 21 at Boston’s Fenway Park when the Rolling Stones kick off their 2005 U.S. tour. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, according to the Boston Herald, is a big Stones fan.

To support the accidental governor’s Nov. 8 special election, his campaign has acquired more than three dozen center stage and luxury box seats. For $10,000 apiece, fans can sip booze and sit in center stage seats. Or, for $100 grand, rock with the cigar-smoking governor and his Democratic wife Maria Shriver in their luxury box. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the band has no role in the fundraiser.

That may not assuage the Bush White House or California neocons. The band sings anti-Bush lyrics in new songs like “Sweet Neo-Con.” A sample: “You call yourself a Christian/I call you a hypocrite/You call yourself a patriot/Well, I think you’re full of s—.” I want tickets!

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