The Pennsylvania Lesbian and Gay Task Force joins national civil rights organizations across the country in encouraging citizens to make their voices heard in strong and unified opposition to the President George W. Bush appointees.

In general, as one would anticipate, each of George W. Bush’s appointees reflect his conservative social and fiscal ideology. The Administration animus towards civil, constitutional, and human rights is clear and requires our willingness, in coalition with all oppressed minorities, to stand against its illegitimacy and its tyranny. Key appointees follow.

Please urge Democratic Senator Leader Tom Daschle (202-224-2321) to organize an aggressive, effective, and vocal opposition to thwart Bush’s ultra-conservative appointments. Senatorial collegiality and deference to a President, selected by five U.S. Supreme Court Justices, will not do.

Despite their declared support, U.S. Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Rick Santorum, who has assumed a Republican Party leadership role, should each hear our views. (Summary data at page 2)

1. John Ashcroft for U.S. Attorney General. Ashcroft views civil rights as “special rights” and encourages “reparative therapy” for gay and lesbian people; opposes affirmative action and equal opportunity for people of color and women of all colors; opposes the ERA and the constitutional right to abortion (with no exceptions for rape or incest); has praised the Southern Partisan, a white supremacist magazine, and the confederate cause (i.e. slavery). Ashcroft supports, as well, segregation and school vouchers, which threaten to further erode the promise of quality public education. Aschroft enjoys a 100% rating by the Christian Coalition. The ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee is Patrick Leahy at 202-224-4242. (See www.ngltf.org/news and www.naacp.org and www.feminist.org)

 

2. Gale Norton for U.S. Secretary of the Interior. Norton led Colorado’s aggressive assault, Amendment Two, to deny gay and lesbian people equal protection under the law, later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in Romer v. Evans (See WWW.lambdalegal.org). Norton opposes affirmative action programs, and opposes environmental regulations (as, too, Christine Whitman, appointed to the EPA). During Norton’s watch and deregulatory fervor, Colorado suffered its worst environmental disaster from a cyanide spill which  killed the Alamosa River and left taxpayers a 150 million dollar clean  up bill (NYT. January 7, 2001). Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) is the ranking democratic member on the Senate Committee on Energy/Resources at 202-224-5521.

3. Thomas (Tommy) Thompson for U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.  Wisconsin Governor Thompson’s “experimental” welfare reform program penalizes poor women and children. The Wisconsin “experiment” removed 90% of recipients from welfare rolls and transferred public dollars to for-profit corporations to administer the program. An independent audit found high-level fraud and corruption by private contractors (e.g. Maximus with a 46 million dollar contract) while the poor got poorer. (K. Rotker. “Corporate Welfare for Welfare Corporations,” Dollars and Sense. January/February 2001). Thompson is a member of the Council for National Policy, a right wing group. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) is the democratic chair of the Committee on Health, Education and Labor (202-224-4543).

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 (Never even questioned)

4. Colin Powell for U.S. Secretary of State.  As Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Powell supported the military anti-gay discrimination policy. In addition, The Nation (January 8/15, 2001) notes that Powell ignored My Lai massacre documentation; ignored flagrant human rights violations in Central America; ignored the human impact of the Gulf War Syndrome on American veterans; violated Geneva conventions in the invasion of Panama resulting in the murder of hundreds of civilians; and blatantly lied to Congressional investigators about the Iran/Contra affair.  Joe Biden (D-DE) is the ranking democrat on the “Foreign” Relations Committee. (Shame on Biden:202-224-5042.)

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Sum

Key Ranking Democrats:         Republican Senators

Tom Daschle at  202-224-2321        Arlen Specter  at  215-597-7200

Patrick Leahy at 202-224-4242       Rick Santorum at 215-864-6900

Jeff Bingaman at 202-224-5521

Edward Kennedy at 202-224-4543

Joe Biden at 202-224-5042

Capitol Switchboard:  Senate 202-224-3121 20510 and House 202-225-3121.

Mailing Address: 
U.S. Senate, Washington DC 20510
U.S. House, Washington, DC 20515

Web Sites:  www.whitehouse.gov-- www.senate.gov-- www.house.gov

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