- Last Monday, Senate hate bill promoters held a press
conference to boldly announce imminent passage of the federal hate bill
by means of Kennedy's amendment. Yet, yesterday's announcement to hold
a hearing on S. 909 in the Senate Judiciary Committee was not preceded
by trumpets.
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- It was done by stealth. Yes, Sen. Patrick Leahy was true
to his promise of five weeks ago that he would give a week's notice if
Judiciary hearings were to be held. But he didn't want the world to know
he had kept his promise, at least right now. He wanted the religious/conservative
right, which has been opposing Kennedy's amendment all week, looking elsewhere
-- keenly anticipating sudden attachment of that amendment to a new and
more reliable host bill. Leahy knew that the last place the right would
be looking would be back at the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was supposedly
done with the hate bill. Leahy hoped that, well into next week, we would
be oblivious of Thursday's hearing. Republican Senators would be un-encouraged
and unprepared. Then, suddenly, hearings would be held with an array of
Democratic witnesses: Atty. Gen. Eric Holder, ADL, SPLC, etc. on the offensive!
Leahy hoped Republican Judiciary Senators would behave as they largely
did during hate bill passage in the previous Congress. They would stay
in their seats, silent.
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- Again, God has intervened to deprive the Democrats of
their strategy and element of surprise. Almost as soon as <http://judiciary.senate.gov/>judiciary.senate.gov
put up the announcement of Thursday's hearing, it was spotted by my secretary,
assigned to watch the Judiciary website closely at least three or four
times daily. I immediately sent out an alert and emailed WorldNetDaily.
Today, <http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=101570>WND's
bold article warns its seven million readers of the hearing on Thursday.
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- Now is YOUR opportunity to make best use of the remaining
four days to make sure we go into Thursday's hearing as prepared as possible.
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- Dubious Senate Republicans
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- The potential problem next week comes not necessarily
from our enemies, but our Republican friends. Especially during the last
seven weeks that the hate bill has been in Judiciary, Senate Republicans
in general, and Judiciary Republicans in particular, have not shown the
same eagerness to fight as did their House counterparts. It's been rather
difficult, in fact, for callers even to squeeze from many Republican offices
clear declarations of opposition to the hate bill.
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- This is consistent with the almost entire failure of
Senate Republicans to publicly speak out against the hate bill when it
passed on September 26, 2007 (See, <http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/hatebillmanipulators.htm>Hate
Bill Manipulators Should Come Clean). This Thursday, Senate Judiciary Republicans
could well prove to be the Achilles heel of hate bill opposition. They
might allow S. 909, largely uncontested, to race forward to almost certain
passage in the Senate.
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- In the days preceding Thursday's hearing these Republicans
may have little time to prepare arguments against S. 909. But today, Friday,
if they hear from enough of us, encouraging them to fight, they could have
the weekend to prepare.
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- Let's get on our phones now and call all Judiciary Republicans
(names listed on the action page of <http://www.truthtellers.org/>www.truthtellers.org).
Call toll free 1-877-851-6437 or toll 1-202-225-3121.
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- Tell them: "Please be prepared for vigorous opposition
to the hate bill in Thursday's Judiciary hearing. In the previous Congress
most Republicans did not speak out on the floor of the Senate and let the
hate bill pass. If that happens again, my friends and I will never forgive
or forget."
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