Conservative Groups Say Senators Sold Out GOP

[Judi Lynn]

May 24, 2005 latimes.com :

Conservative Groups Say Senators Sold Out GOP
Activists are outraged by a deal that doesn't guarantee up-or-down votes on all nominees.

By Richard Simon And Mary Curtius, Times Staff Writers


WASHINGTON — Conservative groups that spent millions of dollars preparing for a Senate fight over use of the filibuster to block votes on President Bush's judicial nominees reacted with outrage Monday night at a compromise that averted the showdown.

Several furious conservative activists accused Republican senators who supported the compromise of selling out Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn), saying they wanted nothing short of guaranteed up-or-down votes on every judicial nominee.
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Of the seven Republicans who signed the compromise agreement, Sheldon said: "They didn't have the backbone and the fortitude to stand up for the fact that we are the majority."

James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, which had been lobbying GOP senators to hold firm, expressed his "disappointment, outrage and sense of abandonment."

Come election day, he said, "voters will remember both Democrats and Republicans who betrayed their trust."
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-react24may24,0,69327.story?coll=la-home-headlines
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