Civil rights organizations voiced their support of Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor just one day after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 to confirm her nomination.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) joined representatives of various organizations in a press conference Wednesday to discuss the historic nomination and upcoming Senate vote.
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights President Wade Henderson said, “Her elevation to the Supreme Court would mark another advance on the road to equal opportunity that this nation has traveled from its founding; but, even more importantly, it would give Americans a Justice they can be confident will uphold their constitutional values, the rule of law and the principle of equal justice for all.”
Lillian Rodriguez Lopez of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda spoke about Sotomayor from both a professional and a personal perspective. Lopez fought back tears as she explained that while she, too, is a Hispanic woman from New York, she could only “pray to possess” the qualities and skills that Sotomayor possesses.
“I hope that next week that the members of the entire Senate will send a message of resounding support for Judge Sotomayor to the American people, to the Hispanic American people, when they vote for her confirmation,” said Lopez.
Reid said he is currently trying to cut a deal with Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) regarding the floor debate, but isn’t certain on how long the debate may last. He dismissed Republicans’ concerns over Sotomayor, asking rhetorically, “How many times do we have to listen to the same speeches on the same brief statements she made, on the same case that she talked about?”
Reid added that the Senate will be working long hours to ensure that the confirmation vote is one of the last things they do before they leave for the August recess.
Afshin Molavi, fellow at the New America Foundation, describes defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi as an “accidental opposition leade” stating that Mousavi needs support from the crowds as much as they need his representation. In addition, Molavi says that Mousavi represents a revolution against the older generation in Iran. (0:40)
By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service
The U.S. may be one step closer to sending a new ambassador to Iraq. The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee convened on Wedneday to vet Ambassador Designate Christopher Hill. Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) recognized the importance of getting a new ambassador to the region with expedience, but certain Senators have expressed concerns about Hill’s past.
Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who should be noted is not on the Committee, several weeks ago promised a fight in the Senate confirmation process because of actions that transpired while Hill was heading the six-party talks concerning North Korean nuclear disarmament. Brownback felt that Hill had misled Congress on his intentions to confront the issues of Human Rights with North Korea during the negotiations, since those issues ended up not being addressed.
Hill responded to Brownback’s concerns during the hearing today, and said that although he had agreed before Congress to address human rights, the process was stalled before the issue could be discussed. Human rights would have been on the table during the restoration of diplomatic ties with North Korea, Hill said, but that phase would have come only after the verification of North Korea’s nuclear assets, and that verification never took place. Hill had planned on supporting initiatives from then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to put together a human rights program to tie progress in human rights reform to better diplomatic ties. Hill said today that America’s relationship with North Korea would not be normalized until North Korea completely did away with its nuclear stockpiles, and Hill could not fulfill his promise to Congress until the stockpiles had been eliminated.
It’s uncertain when the Senate confirmation vote will take place. There has been talk concerning delaying the vote until after the upcoming Congressional recess.
Senator Tom Harkins (D-Iowa) and Congressman George Miller (D-Ca) held a press conference to discuss the progress of the “Employment Free Choice Act: Strengthening the Middle Class.”
Senator Harkin’s said: “We are introducing legislation that puts the power back into the hands of the people who are truly the backbone of our country. Today, Congressman Miller and I along with our co-sponsors are introducing the Employment Free Choice Act and we intend to pass this act not in a matter of years, but in weeks or months.”
Senator Harkin’s added: “In 2004 the average CEO made 431 times that of the average worker.
Congressman Miller said: “Under this bill the employees can choose to organize either through the National Labor Relations Board Election Process or through a majority sign up. Under the current law the CEO can veto employees choice when they use majority sign up. Under this bill the employee’s choice will be respected.”
The two said that from discussions they anticipated that the Senate would be first to vote on the Act and Senator Harkin’s said that by the time the vote comes he “believes” that there will be the 60 votes required for the legislation to pass.
The vote in the Senate is expected to take place after Easter recess.
Citizen advocacy organization Common Cause has identified a series of concerns surround the upcoming election.
“Probably the biggest problem we’ve seen this election is troubles with people’s voter registration, where they’ll be going to the polls thinking that they are registered and told ‘sorry, we don’t have your name on the list’,” said Derek Cressman, Regional Director of State Operations for Western States for Common Cause.
Cressman partially attributes this to new voter verification policies, such as Florida’s hardline policy which states that voter registration data must exactly match other state information.
According to Cressman, there have been some instances when voters have been wrongfully removed from registration lists.
“We’re also particularly worried that in the final days before the election we’ll see practices that are known as voter challenges, where there’ll be partisan operatives at polling places challenging a voter’s eligibility.”
Cressman said that the organization is convinced that there are thousands of legitimate voters that have been wrongfully denied the ability to vote.
President of Common Cause Bob Edgar says that the organization has mobilized against these threats by sending thousands to work for the cause of fair elections and establishing the hotline “866-OurVote”, where voters can ask questions and confirm their registration status.
Speaking to reporters after the first presidential debate, former Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss.) says that if he were still Senate Majority Leader, he would force a vote. On important political votes like this, he says, Senators and Members of the House will delay as long as possible. (0:31)
On a conference call hosted by Lifetime’s Every Woman Counts campaign, Toby Graff, senior Vice President of Public Affairs at Lifetime, describes the importance of the female vote in this year’s election. She says a large majority of women believe that Senator Hillary Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) candidacy “paved the way” for more women to run for office in the future. (0:41)
Lifetime’s Every Woman Counts campaign hosted a conference call to discuss the results of a new poll on how the women’s vote looks after Senator Hillary Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) candidacy. Toby Graff, the Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at Lifetime said neither Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) nor Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) have a majority in the women’s vote, so there is still a lot of room for the candidates to push to secure the female vote.
Celinda Lake, a pollster at Lake Research Partners, said Obama has a solid lead over McCain, with 49 percent, but 10 percent of female voters are still undecided. She said Obama does very well with black and hispanic voters, while McCain does best with white and older women. Obama is most liked for his personal attributes, such as his empathy and likeability, while McCain is most liked for his experience. 81 percent of self-described “democratic” female voters will vote for Obama, and independent female voters far prefer Obama as well.
76 percent of former female Clinton supporters now support Barack Obama, but 18 percent of them will instead vote for McCain. Kellyanne Conway, a pollster at the Polling Company, Inc., said former Clinton Supporters would be more supportive of Obama if he chose a female running mate. When asked why Clinton did not win the nomination, one in five women responded that it was because of her gender.
