Challenge DiFi to Filibuster on Friday at 11am

For Immediate Release

1/18/06

Contact:
Ragina Johnson, campaign manager
Todd Chretien for Senate, 415-412-4540
http://www.Todd4Senate.org

Press Conference and Rally to Demand: Alito Filibuster or Bust!
Outside doors of Sen. Feinstein’s San Francisco Office
One Post Street
Friday, January 20 at 11am

Todd Chretien, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, will join with other pro-choice activists and organizations to visit Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office to ask why the Senator refuses to filibuster Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, who Christian Coalition leader Pat Robertson called a “grand slam home run” for the anti-abortion movement.

On Sunday, January 15, Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced her opposition to filibustering Supreme Court Nominee Samuel Alito.

"When it comes to filibustering a Supreme Court appointment, you really have to have something out there, whether it's gross moral turpitude or something that comes to the surface," said Sen. Feinstein. "This is a man I might disagree with, (but) that doesn't mean he shouldn't be on the court."

Mr. Chretien accused Sen. Feinstein of putting her own political interests ahead of the interests of women and minorities in California.

“Sen. Feinstein had yet another chance to stand up to President Bush, but she chose to sit down and let Alito join the Supreme Court. Alito will now begin the assault on Roe v. Wade as well as work place anti-discrimination laws protecting women and people of color,” said Chretien. “Denying women access to publicly-funded, safe and legal abortions, means denying women the right to control their own bodies and denying them equal rights with men.”

Mr. Chretien will deliver a letter to Sen. Feinstein’s office on behalf of pro-choice people in San Francisco demanding that she stand up for a women’s right to choose and lead a filibuster against the nomination of Samuel Alito.

On Saturday, January 21, an anti-choice organization plans to parade through San Francisco to rollback women’s rights. San Franciscans are overwhelmingly pro-choice and will turn out to oppose the anti-choice marchers. Too many elected officials are falling down on the job of protecting a woman’s right to chose. Mr. Chretien will speak at the counter protest organized by Bay Area pro-choice group BACORR.