HATE BILL HEARING NEXT TUESDAY?
By Rev. Ted Pike
6 May 09
Yesterday Sen. Patrick Leahy quietly scheduled a Senate
Judiciary hearing next Tuesday to consider “helping state and
local law enforcement.” The Local Law Enforcement
Hate Crimes Prevention Act, S 909, now before the Senate Judiciary Committee, proposes “to
provide federal assistance to states, local jurisdictions, and Indian
tribes to prosecute hate crimes…”
Is Leahy underhandedly scheduling a hate bill hearing, to enable pro-hate
bill Judiciary Democrats to ram their hate bill forward to passage?
I think he is.
I called a Senate Judiciary spokeswoman who told me she is a member
of Leahy’s staff. She said, “No. This is a hearing about
assisting state and local law enforcement. If it were about the hate
bill, I believe the Senator would have said so.”
“But,” I asked, “Could this hearing expand to consider
the hate bill in its intention to provide federal assistance to state
law enforcement?”
“Yes,” she said.
With veiled language, Sen. Leahy is likely fulfilling his promise
to announce a hate bill hearing. He is confident most observers will
think this hearing is about obscure issues of federal aid to states;
no one will perceive the hearing’s true purpose.
Leahy is wrong. I hope that every defender of freedom will closely
watch www.judiciary.senate.gov next Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT. Observers
on the West Coast should tune in at 7 a.m.
This is a “hearing” to which no witnesses will probably
be called. No troublesome Republican debate or amendments may be allowed.
Rep. Conyers hoped for this several weeks ago in the House Judiciary.
As a result of powerful protest, he did allow Republicans (although
without witnesses) to propose amendments to the mark-up session in
the House—something he tried to avoid.
I believe Leahy is trying to pull a similar fast one. He hopes to
rush the hate bill through by a majority vote, catching Republican
Judiciary members unprepared.
Don’t let that happen. Call Republican members of the Senate
Judiciary NOW and encourage them to put up a strong fight in the
probable hate bill hearing next Tuesday. (Their names
are listed on our Action
Page at
www.truthtellers.org.) Call
1-877-851-6437 toll free or 1-202-225-3121 toll.
If indeed this is a hearing unrelated to the hate bill, the attention
of an international audience will pressure Judiciary Democrats to keep
it that way. But if it expands into a pro-hate bill referendum, thousands
including the FOX News Network (now
attacking the “pedophile-protecting
hate bill”) will be instant to sound the alarm.
Leahy made a serious strategic error by scheduling a hate bill hearing
yesterday before Wednesday’s FOX attack. As anger mounts nationwide
at the hate bill, Senate Democrats should lie low and hope it subsides.
By instead scheduling a hearing in a less than forthright way, Leahy
only incites the fires of suspicion—suspicion that the hate bill,
both in content and methods of passage, is duplicitous; it can’t
withstand the usual rigors of passage or scrutiny imposed on other
legislation.
There was a time in previous Congresses when under-the-table hate
bill strategies worked. Not today. Today, the whole world is watching.
Watch the dynamic 10-minute educational video How to Kill the
Hate Bills at www.truthtellers.org which
explains how the hate bill, S.909, ends freedom.
Please tell the offices of members of Congress to watch it! Also
at www.truthtellers.org, watch our gripping 82-minute documentary Hate
Laws: Making Criminals of Christians.
Let the Anti-Defamation League teach you how they have saddled 45 states with
hate laws capable of persecuting Christians, and spearhead attempts to pass the
federal hate crimes bill: http://www.adl.org/99hatecrime/intro.asp.
TALK SHOW HOSTS: Interview Rev. Ted Pike on this subject. Call
(503) 631-3808.
National Prayer Network, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas,
OR 97015
