Ties link members of the obscure "Committee For Justice" with Pat Robertson and his financial partners.

hen the Senate Judiciary Committee took up the nomination of Bill Pryor for a position on the 11th U.S. District Court of Appeals, supporters of the controversial Alabama Attorney General suddenly accused Democrats of using an offensive religious litmus test to screen candidates.

   Pryor is a Roman Catholic who has spoken out against abortion rights for women and marriage for same sex couples. He is also a supporter of public religious displays, including a monument of the Ten Commandments placed in the foyer of the Alabama Judicial Building on orders from his close friend, state Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore. But when SJC members, mostly Democrats began looking into Pryor's alleged improper fund raising activities for Republican candidates, including a partisan association of state attorneys general, allegations of religious bigotry suddenly began appearing in ads and press releases.

   Pryor supporters have put so much "spin" on the issue that some might think that critics of the embattled nominee first played the "religion card" to derail the troubled nomination.

   They didn't.

   In fact, with his nomination now ready to go to the floor of the full U.S. Senate, religion has become linked to the controversy over Pryor's appointment thanks, in part, to the political machinations of a shadowy ad hoc committee of "wired" lawyers, and an equally low-profile Catholic political advocacy group which pours hundreds of thousands of dollars into campaigns to support anti-abortion candidates. Equally revealing is the fact that a partisan supporter of both President Bush and Mr. Pryor was first to bring up the "religion card" during a hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. At a June 11 session, Utah Republican Orrin Hatch asked Pryor to reveal his religious affiliation. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) quickly protested that Hatch's question was out of line.

   In a speech to Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition last fall, Hatch accused Democrats of giving the thumbs down to judges and other candidates for the federal bench "based on their religious views."

   Those allegations have reverberated on Capitol Hill and in the news media thanks to a pair of obscure groups, the "Committee For Justice" headed by former George W.H. Bush political operative C. Borden Gray, and the Ave Maria List, a Catholic political action group which has contributed huge sums of money to anti-abortion candidates. Both are supporting Bush nominees for the federal judiciary, including Mr. Pryor, and have been active in trying to tar opponents of the appointment with the brush of "religious bigotry."

   The Committee For Justice was established by Gray in July, 2002, and according to the Washington Post has the sole purpose of lobbying on behalf of President Bush's choices for the judiciary. Critics say that Bush is seeking to "pack the courts" with judges who reflect a religious right ideology on issues ranging from civil liberties and abortion to the separation of church and state. But as with the nomination of Bill Pryor, there may be other issues coming into play, such as appointee's positions on anti-trust legislation and class action lawsuits.

   The membership of the CFJ reads like a "who's who" of attorneys and political operatives wired into the Bush White House and other centers of influence. Included are:

   ¶       Haley Barbour, former Republican National Committee chairman and now head of the Barbour, Griffith & Rogers law firm. The firm's CEO is Lanny Griffith, another Committee for Justice member, and M. Diane Allbaugh. The vice chairman, Edward Rogers, is affiliated with both the Barbour law firm and the CFC, and both Barbour and Rogers are lobbyists for the Microsoft Corporation, a defendant in an antitrust action in the DC District Court of Appeals.

   ¶       C. Borden Gray is one of the few CFJ members publicly identified in mass media. He is a partner in the Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering law firm, whose client list includes AOL Time Warner. Gray served as White House counsel for the current president's father, President George H.W. Bush.

   ¶       Fred Fielding is a former Reagan White House counsel, and senior partner in the Wiley, Rein & Fielding law firm. One client is Clear Channel Worldwide, which operates the nation's largest chain of radio stations. Proposed FCC changes would make it easier for media giants like Clear Channel to expand their holdings in radio, television and newspapers.

   ¶       Ex-Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, who pushed President Bush's faith-based initiative at the state level, is also a key CFJ member, and head of the American Council of Life Insurers. That organization is lobbying for legislation that would shift large, multi-state class action lawsuits from state to federal courts where they hope such actions would receive less favorable rulings.

   ¶       Edwin Williamson is a partner with the extremely influential Washington, D.C. law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell. Their clients include UBS Warburg and the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. which are being sued by shareholders of the bankrupt Texas-based Enron Corporation.

   ¶       Another attorney working to shift the legal venue of class action lawsuits from state to the more restrictive courts is CFJ member Stanley Anderson. He is a partner with McDermott, Will & Emery, and serves as executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

   ¶       Lanny Griffith is linked to CFJ and Haley Barbour's Barbour, Griffith & Rogers law firm. Griffith was a political director in the 1988 Bush-Quayle presidential campaign, and served in the White House as Special Assistant for Intergovernmental Affairs, and as Assistant Secretary of Education.

   ¶       Former U.S. Senator Connie Mack (R-Fla) is a policy adviser to the Shaw, Pittman law firm which represents the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co currently being sued by the federal government. During his testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Pryor was grilled on his ties to tobacco firms and other industries.

   ¶       Another name linked to the Committee For Justice is M. Diane Allbaugh, a prominent Texas attorney and former Legal Counsel and Executive Assistant in the Oklahoma Tax Commission from 1992 to 1994. She was formerly associated with the Austin, Texas-based legal firm of Scarborough, Woodward & Weisbart.

   Ms. Allbaugh is married to Joseph Allbaugh, a campaign manager for George W. Bush , and is a registered lobbyist on behalf of three major Texas-based utilities. An October 27, 2000 fax to Mr. Bush from Judicial Watch identifies those firms as Entergy Corp., Relian Energy, Inc. and TXU.

   "Entergy Corporation" which appears in reports of potential campaign fund raising abuse by the Clinton-Gore White House, as well as corporate movers-and-shakers linked to none other than prominent American televangelist and international businessman Pat Robertson. Entergy was a participant in numerous trade missions to China and elsewhere, and according to Judicial Watch "had previously attempted to do business with the Lippo Group whose principals are Mochtar and James Riady."

   There has been speculation that Lippo had ties to the Chinese Intelligence Service; but more likely the association involved Lippo and members of the Chinese upper crust of bureaucrats, banking officials and quasi-private investors.

   In 1994, representatives of Entergy were junketing with then-Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown as part of a trade delegation to China. On board was CEO Edwin Lupberger. Entergy swung a $2 billion deal with the North China Power Group to construct the 1200 megawatt power plant then being planned for Daton, China. Brown provided official U.S. government financing for the project, which included the Lippo Group. Later, Entergy contributed $80,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

   Despite the ties of Lippo operatives like John Huang to the Clinton White House, Pat Robertson -- a solid backer of both Bush presidents and Attorney General Pryor -- is also part of the nexus, beginning with his friendship and business links to Mochtar Riady, the Lippo founder and patriarch. Robertson, along with son Timothy, have boasted of their high-level contacts within the Chinese state apparatus. And the Riadys teamed up with Robertson in a multi-million dollar deal to launch China Entertainment Broadcast Television, Ltd., a media network based in Hong Kong which soothed Chinese sensibilities by providing "no news, no sex, no violence" TV content throughout the region.

   Entergy CEO Edwin Lupberger has other curious ties to the religious and conservative right dating back to at least 1996. In November, 1996, culture guru William Bennett announced the formation of the National Commission on Civic Renewal, underwritten by a $950,000 grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts. The NCCR conducted "hearings to take testimony about the breakdown in civic trust" and other themes resonating with Bennett's own dark vision of American decline -- much of it supposedly due to secularism. Among the panels members were Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston (at the time hushing up a massive sex abuse scandal in his diocese); Richard D. Land of the Southern Baptist Convention's Christian Life Commission; Michael S. Joyce of the pro-voucher Bradley Foundation; and Edwin Lupberger of Entergy.

   The Committee's role in the Pryor nomination flap broke after it sponsored a battery of controversial, graphic ads in Maine and Rhode Island raising the issue of religion. According to the Washington Post, those states were selected due to "large numbers of Catholics and moderate Republican senators." One ad depicted a courthouse door with a sign hung on it stating, "Catholics Need Not Apply." The advertisement then asked, "Why are some in the U.S. Senate playing politics with religion?"

   Attorney General Pryor is then described as a nominee who is "a loving father" and "devout Catholic."

   "It's time for his political opponents to put his religion aside and give him an up or down vote," says the CFJ broadside.

   A Washington Post editorial, though asked: "But who exactly is 'playing politics with religion' here? We are aware of no instance in which any Senate opponent of Mr. Pryor has raised (the issue of) his religion -- nor did the Committee for Justice produce an example in response to our inquiries. The only people raising Mr. Pryor's Catholicism, rather, seem to be his supporters."

   Less is known about the Ave Maria List, which at first glance appears to be only some kind of internet chat group. But the "List" is actually a political action committee which funnels money to anti-choice candidates for public office. According to the group's own material and web site, the organization "gives Catholics the opportunity to join together in the political arena and target their support to candidates across the country that maintain principles which are consistent with the teachings of the Church."

   The "List" was formed "In response to the call by Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Bishops to take our faith into the political arena and restore the culture of life in our country..."

   So far, the campaign to "religionize" the Pryor nomination and build sympathy for the prospective appointee has yielded mixed results. Media focused on the "religion card," and shifted attention away from nagging questions concerning Pryor's fundraising for the Republican Attorneys General Association. That has allowed him and the Bush White House to dodge questions over whether Pryor solicited political contributions from companies that had business before the AG's office. Democrats wanted to complete that investigation before any vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) warned "To vote on Pryor would put him before the Senate with a ticking ethical time bomb."

   Hatch eventually succeeded in forcing a vote, blustering "This has been investigated out the wazoo. It's time to vote!"

   Meanwhile, the Committee For Justice/Ave Maria List campaign to interject religion -- and charges of religious bias -- into the Pryor nomination hearings have met with some stiff opposition. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) told reporters, "The charge is despicable ... I trust that our Republican colleagues, who are so quick to castigate policy groups that dare to oppose any nomination, and who are so prone to categorically condemn every critical statement concerning any Republican nominee as a partisan smear, will today, finally, condemn this ad campaign.

   "This smear is a lie, and it depends on the silence of others to survive."

   During one exchange on the SJC, Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin became angry at the tone of discussion.

   "As a person who was raised Catholic and is a practicing Catholic, I deeply resent this new line of attack from the right wing that anyone who opposes William Pryor is guilty of discrimination against him because he is Catholic."

   Durbin added that many Catholics disagree with the Vatican's official policy on abortion, or at least the notion that church dogma should be enforced by law and police.

   "Many Catholics who oppose abortion personally do not believe the laws of the land should prohibit abortion for all others in extreme cases involving rape, incest and the life and health of the mother," he said.

   Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, a staunch supporter of the Pryor nomination, piped up:

   "The ranking member (Leahy) protests that he is not anti-Catholic and he's offended that anyone suggested that he is. Well, let me tell you, the doctrine that abortion is not justified for rape and incest is Catholic doctrine. It is a position of the pope and it's a position of the Catholic Church in unity (sic). So are we saying that if you believe in that principle, you can't be a federal judge? Is that what you're saying? And we are not saying, then, good Catholics need not apply?"

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