UPDATE: The House Judiciary Committee hearing is on Friday April 10, and they will take public testimony at 5 p.m. 1-800-295-4546. Listen live on Gavel to Gavel. The full Legislature is scheduled to hold a confirmation vote on April 16.
UPDATE 2: Read Leah Burton's testimony on WAR's family values: "There wouldn't be an issue with domestic violence if women would learn to keep their mouths shut."
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The Senate Judiciary Committee is taking public testimony for the Attorney General Confirmation Hearings for Wayne Anthony Ross on Wednesday, April 8 at 5:30 p.m.
The call in number is: 1-888-295-4546. You can also walk in to your local Legislative Information Office to testify. The Anchorage office is on 4th Ave.
"Does he have the qualifications, ethical standards and temperament to be the state's top law enforcement official and run such an important, politically sensitive department?" asked an ADN editorial.
Qualifications
- Ross has been up for two separate Judicial advancements in the past two years, for the Alaska Supreme Court in 2007 and the Alaska Court of Appeals in 2008. He was not nominated by the Alaska Judicial Council either time. His mediocre Alaska Bar Association scores were cited as the reason he did not receive a nomination.
- In response, he wrote a letter to the Bar Association newsletter complaining about the judicial selection process and the negative comments made about him in the anonymous Bar Survey used to rate the applicants.
Ethics and Temperament
There is an extensive written record on Ross from his two unsuccessful runs for governor and his long history of political activism. His zealous support for a host of controversial causes and his insulting public statements about those who believe differently show intolerance, bad judgement and the inability to seek common ground. He has a long list of enemies, and even his attorney peers and NRA buddies don't want him in positions of power.
- He called on the governor to fire an Assistant Attorney General for her participation in a peaceful animal rights demonstration. ("Animal Activists Real Enemy")
- He threatened to sue the Permanent Fund Dividend division because they denied a check to his son Brian, who had not lived in Alaska for 14 years.
- During a talk on domestic violence, he said that the women's movement emasculated men and was the cause of domestic abuse.
- He promised to fight the federal law requiring rural subsistence, and opposes tribal sovereignty saying, "If the state wants to deal with tribes, it should treat them as it treats fraternal organizations rather than as governments."
- He did not support Mayor Wuerch for re-election because Wuerch refused to help Ross' friend get into the Anchorage Fire Department after the friend failed a required psychological test.
- He publicly stated that pro-choice people are "baby killers," and called gays and lesbians "degenerates" in an open letter to the state Bar Association.
- He endorsed Rick Mystrom for mayor in 2003 "because he fights the unions."
- He represented without fee, and personally supported, a man who twice poured buckets of water from a passing pickup onto anti-war demonstrators.
- He was a founder of Alaska Right to Life and has provided free legal services to anti-abortion activists since 1972.
- He blamed moderate Republicans for the state's fiscal problems saying, "Moderates are mush."
- He is a former vice president of the National Rifle Association and was in line to become president, but was voted out of office by his peers.
- He is frequently described as "arrogant," uncompromising and attention-seeking.
Do we trust an arrogant political activist with mediocre professional ratings, zealous positions on sensitive state issues, and openly expressed prejudice against groups of Alaskan citizens to be "the state's top law enforcement official and run such an important, politically sensitive department?"
Give your public testimony on Wednesday, April 8 at 5:30 p.m. The call in number is: 1-888-295-4546.
I was listening to the live feed from Gavel to Gavel Alaska to his testimony so far, & posting my reactions as comments to my own Facebook comment... live-blogging of sorts (in between doing what I'm doing at work). FWIW, here it is:
ReplyDelete1:29pm. First hearing on Wayne Anthony Ross (Palin's WAR on Alaska) in Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee starts in a few minutes (1:30 PM ADT). It'll be streamed live here from Gavel to Gavel Alaska (scroll down to 1:30 PM). See other details about WAR hearings in ADN's politics blog, http://community.adn.com/node/140319
1:59pm. [Listening.] WAR sure is a mumbler. Didn't anyone ever teach WAR to enunciate? He sounds like his mouth is full of mashed potatoes.
2:12pm. Now he just called a theoretical good parent "Joe Average Schmuck" (during discussion of the Office of Children's Services work to protect children from abuse).
2:20pm. His answer to — I believe it's Sen. Lesil McGuire's — question about violence against women & child sexual abuse has NOTHING to do with what she asked. But, after 8 days on the job, he does know where the men's room is.
2:21pm. [Do I have a future in live-blogging legislative meetings & hearings?]
2:28pm. He's opposed to the death penalty, though. But if one passed — which is what current House Bill 9 would like to do — he would apply it in line with the attorney general's job to apply the law.
2:57pm. Now stating "why Alaskans came here" — "to get away from big government" (a pet conservative phrase). Speak for yourself, WAR. I came to Alaska for my own reasons, having little to do with government big or small. I want _good_ government. Not to mention that has diddly to do with the question asked, about Alaska Native sovereignty.
3:04pm. Did I just hear him say "Washington, DC is not a friend to Alaska"?!!! Hey, isn't it DC that's handed us all that money hand over first for the last few decades? Much to the disgruntlement of people in other states, who get far less bang for their tax buck?
3:06pm. Geez. Republican "big government is eeeeevil" ranting is so much hypocrisy coming from Alaskans who still worship Ted Stevens for all the pork he brought home. AK repubs only hate big govt. when it's not handing them cartloads of money for nothing.
3:19pm. A legislator (not sure which one) just mentioned his calling a "group of people 'immoral' & 'degenerates'" in a letter to the Alaska Bar Association. The people referred to were Alaska's lesbians & gays — as reported first by E. Ross of the Bent Alaska blog at Pam's House Blend. Here's her Bent Alaska post about it: http://www.bentalaska.com/2009/03/palins-ag-pick-called-gays-degenerates.html
WAR's response to the legislator's concern about his divisiveness was a whole lotta "we can do it together" nothing.
3:23pm. Feed's gone silent. I know they're supposed to take public testimony starting 5:30 PM, not sure if there will be anything else before then. I won't be able to listen (at least not live) then; hope others will, & will testify.
Note to ER: think I got it in the right place this time. Brain fart. Per your note at the other post, leaving this liveblog there as well.
I should add that my boss just gave an in-depth overview of UAA Justice Center research on violence against women to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week -- so this stuff is very fresh in the committee's awareness. WAR's response to their concerns was pretty bad.
ReplyDeleteHere's the info on Dr. Rosay's presentation at the Justice Center blog.
Thanks Mel!!
ReplyDeleteSo how did WAR respond to the violence against women presentation?
WAR wasn't at the actual presentation -- which was actually week before last (Mar. 25). But Lesil McGuire was (she's a member of the committee), & I think it was she who asked him a question about the levels of violence against women & child sexual abuse in state, & what he'd do about it. I wasn't able to listen as carefully as I'd've liked (hence, to liveblog with more substantive comments either), because I was working, but it seemed to me he was basically fending off the question (as he did with several questions on issues about which he has a poor record) by basically saying not much in as many words as possible.
ReplyDeleteIf I get a chance. I'll listen more carefully later (the difficulty being: I have plans tonight & tomorrow night both). The audio will be archived in the Gavel to Gavel site for this date. The minutes with the gist of his statements should also be available on the legislature's website within the next day or so. I'll post the links when they become available. But of course the minutes probably won't include colorful language like "Joe Average Schmuck" that one can hear on the audio.
From Stephan:
ReplyDeleteThe hearing can be heard live at:
http://www.ktoo.org/gavel/
click on live audiostreams, senate judiciary committee, 5:30
Sounds like a lot of opposition from the bush and the native associations.
regarding Brian Ross, he is military and the military ought to have PFDs if they claim residence in Alaska because they are out of the state risking their lives (I think he was in Iraq) for the rest of us and we should cut them a little slack.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anon. I understand the military point, although he was living safely in the Lower 48 for most of those 14 years. My issue with Wayne is that he threatened to sue the PFD division, instead of using the appeal process like the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteHas there been anyone commenting here about the comments that Ross made at the AWAIC symposium a couple of years back where he allegedly said that domestic violence is the product of the women's movement & its emasculation of men?
ReplyDeleteI'd like to have some of that to cite. Would there have been a video of the presentation?
Anon, I believe someone testified about his statement during the 5:30 PM public testimony last night (I ended up catching about half an hour of it on Gavel to Gavel). One of the committee members asked her if there was some kind of recording, & as I recall the witness said that the person who would best know if there was one would be Sharon Araji, who was one of the people running the symposium.
ReplyDeleteSharon Araji was, up until a year or two ago, a professor in the UAA Sociology Department, but she's now down in Colorado, I think at a college or university there. If she is, she might be findable through a Google search, & contact info maybe at her current institution.
But also the Sociology Dept. at UAA might know if there's a recording, & so might AWAIC.
I'll try to remember to call up Sociology tomorrow to ask them.
Update: I found Sharon Araji's email address at U. Colorado Denver & wrote her an email. (It helps I know her.)
ReplyDeleteUpdate2: But I got an "out of the office" message back, so there'll be no answer from her this week. Next avenues: Soc. Dept. & AWAIC. Could someone call AWAIC, & I'll do Soc.?
ReplyDelete