Pro-Life Women’s Group Chides Senate Democrats on Filibusters 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 1, 2005
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A pro-life women’s group is criticizing Senate Democrats for refusing to allow up or down votes on President Bush’s pro-life judicial picks. Concerned Women for America (CWA) says the Senate minority’s refusal to vote on the president’s judicial nominees is like the neighborhood bully who takes the ball and runs home because he can’t stand to lose.
"The minority knows that every nominee has more than 51 votes for confirmation so they refuse to vote to keep from losing," said Jan LaRue, CWA’s chief counsel. "They claim that the president’s nominees are out of the mainstream but it’s the minority that’s lost touch with mainstream Americans and lost the election as a result."
LaRue said abortion advocates in the Senate oppose the selections for federal district and appeals courts because they prefer judges who legislate from the bench.
"Americans don’t want judges who think the Constitution needs to conform to the laws of some banana republic or that it’s their own personal Etch-a-Sketch to create rights to … partial-birth abortion," LaRue added.
Concerned Women for America encouraged Senate Republicans and pro-life advocates to pursue changing rules regarding filibusters, the parliamentary tactic used to prevent votes on the nominees.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has been contemplating a vote on changing the rules to lower the number of votes needed to stop a filibuster from 60 to 50.
"Sen. Frist and members of both parties who are fed up with the losers’ judicial-bustering need to take the ball and let the bullies run home," LaRue concluded. "Losers get to vote — they don’t get to win by rewriting the rules. It takes 51 votes to confirm a judge and 41 to throw a tantrum."
