Tuesday, September 04, 2018

The Family Research Council forgets its homophobic smear campaign against Obama SCOTUS pick & how it encouraged GOP obstruction

The Family Research Council practices selective outrage at Brett Kavanaugh's hearing.

So today, after a very vibrant hearing of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Family Research Council head Tony Perkins issued a press release blasting Democrats for supposedly impeding the process selecting a SCOTUS judge:

Kavanaugh Hearing Offers a Snapshot of Where the Left Wants to Take America, says Family Research Council 
 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Family Research Council President Tony Perkins released the following statement in response to this morning’s U.S. Supreme Court nomination hearing for Judge Brett Kavanaugh: “This hearing is a snapshot of where America is and where we will head if the Left has the reins of government. The idea that this is about reviewing millions of pages of documents is laughable. 
Remember, this is the party of Nancy Pelosi who said of the most expansive piece of government policy, Obamacare, that they would have to pass the 2,300 page bill and then read it. The audience outbursts and the obstruction by the Democrats was reportedly coordinated in a conference call yesterday. 
 “This really validates what President Trump told evangelical leaders last week. The Left will stop at nothing as evidenced by the violence of Antifa. The unhinged conduct of the Left should make it crystal clear what is not only at stake in the balance of the Court, but the future of our country. “America is at such a critical stage that for Christians or conservatives to step back for just one moment could result in the loss of not just the fundamental freedoms reestablished in the last two years, but the loss of the Republic as we have known it,” concluded Perkins.

It's amusing of the Family Research Council to cry foul over how the Democrats are merely demanding an open and full vetting on Kavanaugh's record.

In the past FRC not only encouraged the GOP obstruction of Obama judges, including potential SCOTUS Justice Merrick Garland, but it also engaged in a homophobic smear campaign against Elena Kagan, another Obama SCOTUS pick:

All Americans, regardless of whether they are socially conservative or conservative in any sense have reason to be concerned with anyone reflecting Obama's judicial philosophy. Justices are called upon to interpret the Constitution, not make law. That is not a social pronouncement; nor is it a conservative or liberal issue. It is a constitutional issue. Obama has not shown adherence to the limited role of the judiciary as reflected in our Constitution, and his nominees will only reinforce the bloated power the court has aggrandized to itself. This is why the Senate, under the leadership of Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has committed to refusing any hearings or any votes on Supreme Court nominees during this contentious presidential election year. - Travis Weber, the Family Research Council, April 2016

From People for the American Way, May 3, 2016
The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins has a new conspiracy theory about the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court: 
 Despite spending his career on the bench and in the Justice Department, Garland doesn’t have much of an ideological paper trail. As many have pointed out, the D.C. Circuit Court deals primarily with regulatory issues, meaning that Judge Garland’s record is virtually free of cases on abortion, marriage, or religious liberty. And that’s no accident. If President Obama wants to keep up this façade of centrism, he needs someone free of social baggage. But, make no mistake. Garland was carefully vetted. This president is too worried about his activist legacy to put it in the hands of a man who values the very Constitution it defies.

FRC even included a petition on its webpage encouraging the GOP to obstruct Obama when it came to Garland.

In addition, according to Media Matters, Perkins and the Family Research Council conducted a viciously homophobic smear campaign against Obama SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan,

The anti-LGBT extremist group Family Research Council (FRC) -- which is recognized as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center -- and its leader Tony Perkins waded into Justice Elena Kagan's confirmation process in 2010 to push hateful, conspiracy-laden rhetoric. Perkins and his organization cited discredited conservative media claims about Kagan's time as dean of Harvard Law School (HLS) to allege that Kagan's appointment would allow her to "advance the left's radical social policy." FRC's involvement in the Kagan opposition and its ongoing anti-LGBT activities signal that its inevitable opposition to President Obama's nominee will be both unsubstantiated and hateful.  
 . . .  Parroting misleading conservative media claims about Kagan's involvement with Harvard's military recruitment policy during her HLS deanship, Perkins made a formal statement on behalf of FRC falsely alleging that Kagan had defied law in her decisions about campus military recruitment. Perkins called for Kagan's defeat by alleging that "she clearly does oppose the military because they have not yet bowed to the demands of the militant homosexual movement," and that she "wants to use the military to advance the left's radical social policy more." Perkins added that Kagan's stated view that "a society that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation -- or that tolerates such discrimination by its members -- is not a just society" has "chilling" implications for "the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion." 

If FRC has a problem with the severity of today's hearing, it should look to itself. Calling folks "unhinged" and attempting to connect Democrats to Antifa won't cover up just how partly to blame the hate group is for today's circus.

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