The GOP's Hearing Loss
Troy, Daniel E.
This is the background image for an unknown creator of an OCR page with image plus hidden text. ive years after winning the majority, House By unhappy coincidence, about two weeks before the...
...Despite their power to control the invitations, and count-shot at a measure favored by Henry Hyde— a constitutional ing Holder as a Democratic witness, the Republicans had amendment criminalizing flag-burning— even though it was not allowed the Democrats an equal number...
...They do not know how to protect their duced a measure to broaden the scope of existing hate crime friends and punish their enemies...
...Have you ever said to yourself, "I wish I hadspoken up...
...His bill would also extend federal jurisdiction to "hate crimes" that they were put to rest when I recently appeared occur any time, and not only during the six currently federalbefore the House Judiciary Committee to testify on so-called ly protected activities such as voting, serving on a federal jury, "hate crime" legislation...
...The result...
...Hold-crimes...
...Card No...
...Similarly, its advantage in time and resources should allow the majority to prepare hostile the prepared statements of the witnesses was covered with releases in favor of new hate crime laws from such groups as questions for the minority's witnesses...
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...Whenever I tried to expand on a point, of a "hate crime...
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...Other than Chairman Hyde, Mary Bono was the only public choice problem—certain special interests are intense-Republican to spend significant time at the hearing...
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...ings, made only the briefest appearance, and he neither spoke nor asked questions...
...Despite this background, I contended that hate crime er was in trouble...
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...Citing former Justice Thurmotives only— a standard Democragood Marshall, I said that "the tic dodge to rebut the charge that promise of the Civil Rights Movethis is special interest legislation...
...These high-profile people are among myclients...
...Lindsey ly invested in the issue, with little or no organized opposition...
...When LSU law Professor John hearing on NBC's "Today," and at a Democratic press con-Baker, a Republican witness, tried to go beyond yes or no, ference beforehand...
...Graham, her memorable sidekick from the impeachment hearMost Republicans see few political points to be gained by objecting to hate crime laws...
...L©1999 Wordsuccess LLC This is the background image for an unknown creator of an OCR page with image plus hidden text...
...At that point Jerry Nadler leapt in...
...Instead, in hushed, understated terms he described how, as a U.S...
...Even Democrats hesitate to be so frank about experience with what would today be considered "hate the group-think that underlies hate crime legislation...
...the subject of the hearing...
...Rush me the two Introductory tapes...
...In it I'd made a none where there had been no prosecution...
...the freedom to think extends to "flagburners, Jehovah's Witnesses, and and Canady were gone...
...Picking up on my concession further, Frank made the excellent point that special laws to safeguard the physically vulnerable should extend to the disabled—one of the groups pressing for inclusion in federal hate crime legislation...
...Further, the chairman cussed that day—and my informant was none other than decides the order in which witnesses testify...
...Given the Democrats' success in exploiting Columbine, Department had collected reports of 8,000 hate crimes in 1997, the brutal murders of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming and but he failed to point out that the overwhelming majority of these James Byrd in Texas, and the shootings of Jews and Asians in were not murders, rapes, or assaults, but property crimes or the Midwest, one might think Hyde & Co...
...Shrewd tactics to negotiate, persuade, sell...
...She also got Sullivan to agree that the states were "doing their best" to prosecute hate crimes...
...Frank asked me if I the hearing consisted of statements by oppose efforts to criminalize flag burnten witnesses, followed by questioning...
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...His strategy paid off as he used up the initiative, there may of crimes based on the victim's characteristics" turns Marshall's "vision rest of Gekas's time, and Gekas never asked the chair for more...
...Then, even more incredibly, he yielded back the rest of his time—time he could have given to Republican witnesses to respond to Lee's slanders...
...His first comment resources of the Justice Department, he had identified only a tiny handful Crimes Prevention Act...
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...When it reconvened, even Gekas ous to this possibility...
...Even Barney Frank, who just five days earlier had undergone quintuple heart bypass surgery, put in a full day...
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...Carrington he'd cut me off and accuse me of "filibustering and...trying was the focus of media attention, appearing the morning of the to avoid difficult answers...
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...James Rogan, and other heroes of the impeachment fight...
...They are laws from cases involving racial, religious, or ethnic violence to not media-savvy, and seem generally complacent...
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...When Orr, a victim of gay-bashing, claimed his assailants were let off easy because all they did was roll "a couple of fags," Bono argued that "our staff" has information that the witness had "refused to work with the D.A...
...Speaking as a member of what Felix Frankfurter attack on an individual...
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...ive years after winning the majority, House By unhappy coincidence, about two weeks before the hearRepublicans still have no idea how to wield ing Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch intropower...
...Like even though she knew nothing about the subject and it is a skilled trial lawyer, Frank forces witnesses into simplistic unclear whether her daughter and granddaughter were victims yes or no answers...
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...Hate crime legislation, of course, is a pet issue with Democ-As Holder spoke, he faced, on his right, a phalanx of approvrats, much of whose base is made up of people who believe ing Democrats, 14 of whom (out of r6 on the committee) would they are society's victims and expect special federal protections...
...Watchfor these critical tip-offs...
...In the wake of Hatch's initiative, there may have been no commitment, intelligence, organization, and ruthlessness to their work...
...If this committee has its way," hate crime legislation...
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...For our troubles we were next subjected to an impassioned, angry, intemperate speech by Maxine Waters...
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...Holder noted that the Justice tum...
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...What factor predicted success...
...Carrington was the perfect witness Frank invoked his recent surgery...
...Although few if any legislators change their minds durCoalition Against Domestic Violence, the NAACP, and the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities...
...Republican witnesses were primarily professors is annoying, but his method allows him to dominate his entire who appealed to the intellect, not emotion...
...Typically, he began by invoking the Unfortunately, Chairman Henry Hyde's Oversight Hearing names of Shepard and Byrd— ignoring that on Hate Crime Violence on August 4 seemed to have no state officials aggressively pursued and capdesign or purpose at all...
...Many top executives, politicians andcelebrities dread these situations...
...Shrewdspokesman for the insurance industry, was essentially neu-ly he was using one of the chairman's own witnesses to take a tral...
...When I asked if I could respond to his accusation that I opposed federal anti-lynch laws, he replied, "No, you may not," and returned to his harangue...
...Inside the hearing room, the table that normally holds friendly questions for its witnesses...
...He can even use it as a sop to the opposition, as official the only one to have his own panel, part of a larger strategy that one would think would secure certain tradeoffs...
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...way to prevent the Democrats from hijacking the hearing on behalf of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of logo...
...lican present ever made this clarification either...
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...While the Democratic side swarmed with peocrime legislation, which expands federal power and creates ple and activity the Republican side was marked by empty incentives for groups to see themselves as victims...
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...Although the hearing concerned federal hate crime legislation, Frank asked whether I oppose such legislation at the state level, which I do...
...mitment to an issue...
...Alternatively, it would have leaked the information to the press in an effort to discredit the witness...
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...Instead, the five of us sat silent, undefended, as the normally estimable Bob Barr, who had just arrived and was therefore in the dark about what had just transpired, asked neither friendly nor hostile questions during his allotted time...
...Technically, the chairman has the authorihowever...
...attorney, he had prosecuted cases involving racial prejudice without having to rely on hate crime legislation...
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...Four of these witnesses, invited by the Democrats, favored That's when he pounced...
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...are I not only invoked the Holocaust but also talked about my own more serious...
...revealed that he (or his team) had carefully combed of "hate crimes" where the state response had been "inadequate," and Republican Judiciary through my 15-page, single-spaced written submission...
...Or, "If only I had introducedmyself...
...Only a few Republicans bring any passion to opposing hate By contrast, only n. out of 21 Republican committee members ever showed...
...After Bono came ranking member John Conyers...
...Are youmaking a positive first impression...
...All that Bono accomplished was to look as if she were further victimizing the already victimized...
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...He attacked me for ignoring "the history of racism in America," even though my written statement had dealt with the issue at length...
...George Gekas, one of only three RepubThe American Spectator • November 1999 35 This is the background image for an unknown creator of an OCR page with image plus hidden text...
...The hearing was then temstaffers seemed oblivi-First Amendment argument against hate crime legislation by noting that porarily adjourned for floor vote...
...out risk...
...An indignant Orr replied that this was "patently untrue" and that, what is sation of being on the "wrong side" of civil rights...
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...Now contrast Frank's performance with that of Mary Bono, the only Republican to direct hostile questions to any Democratic witness other than Holder...
...If to avoid being marginalized a witness tries to moderate or qualify his answer, Frank then takes him in the opposite direction...
...such laws are redundant and unnecessary...
...the ACLU, the American Jewish Committee, the National Preparation is essential because hearings are a form of political theater primarily intended to influence public opinion...
...But then Bono proved to be out of her depth when she questioned Democratic witness Tony Orr...
...legislation we were discussing—for attacks on the elderly...
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...She began by describing herself "as a member of a group of people who was brought here in slavery and who were killed and still are being killed, was hung from trees, tarred and feathered, November r 9 99 • The American Spectator...
...Or, "Did I say the wrong thing...
...licans to question any of the Democratic witnesses, got Hold-journal op-ed that such legislation was inconsistent with the er to admit that, in his view, a hate crime was worse than a ran-Bible's rejection of punishments that vary according to a vicdom attack because, according to Holder, "it is not only an tim's status...
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...I was the first witness to oppose the extension of hate crime Another of his techniques is to try to discredit witnesses by legislation...
...Had a similar charge been levied against one of the Democratic witnesses, a Frank or Nadler would have by hook or crook demanded his ally be allowed to clear his name...
...To illustrate, Texas's Sheila Jackson Lee charged all of the Republican witnesses with being opponents of civil rights, contending that: As I listened to you, I am reminded of a journey we took some 30 years ago on the Civil Rights Act of '64 and the Voting Rights Act of '6 5 and I can just imagine the very same sounds and voices coming in opposition to what the people of the United States needed and wanted...
...Holder's last questioner, Repubfrom hijacking the heartioning of witnesses by attacklican Charles Canady, made Holder admit that, even with the full ing on behalf of the Hate ing me...
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...Similarly absent were Bill McCollum, T9 DANIEL E. TROY is a Washington lawyer and an associate scholar at the American Enterprise Institute...
...If I had any doubts on that score, those involving gender, sexual orientation, or disability...
...When I conceded that the government may need to protect a population that was particularly physically vulnerable, such as children, Frank took that as an opportunity to expound on the special vulnerabilities of the "transgendered," who are "far more likely to be victimized...
...In a recent study, StanfordUniversity MBA graduates were surveyed...
...Or he can use it to investigate or intimidate officials in the executive branch or agencies like he first witness, and as a high government the IRS...
...As his time ran out he excoriated me for giving him "no help whatsoever" because I had tried There are few more serious charges than the accusation of being on the "wrong side" of civil rights...
...He then felt free to claim that since I oppose all hate crime laws my testimony at this hearing was irrelevant, because at issue was whether existing federal laws should be extended...
...Because he knows these witnesses' identities at least a few days before the minority does, the majority staff generally has more time to arrange one of the left-wing activists who'd come to lobby in favor of the legislation...
...would have been crimes classified as "intimidation...
...Fair enough...
...The tenth, a Frank said, flag-burners would no longer be protected...
...Accusing GOP witnesses of racism, and then refusing to let us respond, was a favorite technique of the Democrats...
...Not only Democrats but a good many Republicans love to claim they're "doing something" about hate crimes, even if remain present for most of the day-long hearing...
...ndeed, accusing the Republican witnesses of racism, and then refusing to let us respond, was a favorite technique of those Democrats who lack Frank's cross-examination skills...
...At first she usefully forced Littleton Sheriff Patrick Sullivan to agree that Dylan Klebold, had he lived, should not have received one sentence for shooting a student because he was a jock and another for shooting a student because she was religious...
...Asking legislation was "contrary to the notion that we are all chilGekas to allow his interruption, Nadler quickly drew Gekas dren of God, equal in his eyes, and that we are all entitled to into a colloquy about whether hate crime laws are aimed at the equal protection of the law...
...3And much more...
...The only opposing paper was from the Public Advocate...
...Democrat Bobby Scott then lobbed softballs at Holder, which prevent the Democrats arney Frank began the quesallowed him to rebut attacks on the bill...
...women murdered last February in Yosemite National Park, Frank also displayed his mastery of cross-examination...
...It is also an attack on the group that called the "most vilified and persecuted minority in history," that person is a member of, and that is why those crimes...
...3Are you hearing the truth—or a lie...
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...I said I did...
...have been no way to on its head...
...ment was of an America in which Nadler was acting as a savvy defense counsel would at a trial, In the wake of Hatch's everyone would be treated equally," and that "creating a special category objecting to let his witness regroup...
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...I've never heard of ing a hearing, a chairman can use it to demonstrate a comthem either...
...Certainly Hyde did not want hate tured their murderers, who face the death crime legislation, which he opposes, to gain political momenpenalty under existing state law...
...Early on the Democrats showed they know how to protect their witnesses...
...I turn them intopolished, expert conversationalists...
...Republicans rarely manifest this One of the Democratic witnesses Republicans signed off on kind of strategic, "outside the box" thinking, which scored was Carole Carrington, the mother and grandmother of two points against Hyde...
...He pressed me on whether I opposed sentencing enhancements— a very different matter from the hate crime worse, the prosecutor "who handled our case...never contatted us...
...When I also conceded that the case for greater punishments for criminals who attack the disabled was far stronger than is the case for enhancing sentences for attacks based on race, creed, color, sex, or national origin, Frank was clearly dissatisfied...
...It's natural to feel uncomfortable...
...3Ten often-heard expressions—that youshould never say...
...There are few more serious charges in American public life than the accuto characterize some arguments as better than others, instead of simply agreeing with him...
...In fact, it wasn't until I arrived at the hearing that ty to choose witnesses, which should ensure that most, if not all, I learned about Hatch's bill and the fact that it would be disof them favor the majority's point of view...
...Bono had just committed the classic lawyer's mistake of asking a question to which she did not know the answer...
...A savvier staff would have obtained either an affidavit or letter from the D.A., and laid an ambush for Orr...
...The rest of even racists...
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...RepubHouse rules give the majority a great advantage in conlican Judiciary staffers seemed oblivious to this possibility, ducting a hearing...
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Vol. 32 • November 1999 • No. 11
