People For the UnAmerican Way Rallies Its Hollywood Supporters Against Alito

From The New York Slimes:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 - With a battle over the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. just around the corner, a little slice of Hollywood arrived in the capital Tuesday night to raise money for People for the American Way, the liberal advocacy group leading the charge against the judge's confirmation.

The star-spangled awards benefit at the Kennedy Center featured the actresses Sharon Stone, Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly, as well as a performance by original cast members from the musical "Rent." It was expected to raise several hundred thousand dollars for the advocacy group, and it was just the kind of event conservatives love to hate.

Five hundred guests who had paid $250 each mingled over chardonnay and hors d'oeuvres during a cocktail hour while black-clad celebrities posed before flashing cameras. The attendees represented a Who's Who of liberal groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Alliance for Justice, which also opposes Judge Alito.

"The religious right already controls the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives," Ralph G. Neas, president of People For, as the group is known in Washington and Hollywood circles, said in a speech as the awards ceremony began.

Now, Mr. Neas warned, the right is planning to "pack the Supreme Court with right-wing ideologues."

***
But to conservatives, who have long deplored the influence of Hollywood in Washington, the Kennedy Center gala was proof that "unreconstructed 60's radicals" are behind People for the American Way, said Sean Rushton, executive director of the Committee for Justice, a group supporting Judge Alito.

[More]

My Comments:
I think it's quite clear that the opposition to nominees like Judge Alito is coming from those who would like to see Hollywood's values replace the "old-fashioned" values of Red State voters. They can't win at the ballot box, so they know they must keep their culture of death allies in control of the courts.

And I'm sure the supporters of Alito's nomination are just quaking in their boots knowing that he is now being opposed by such '80s holdovers as Cagney and Lacey and that crotch-baring slut from that Michael Douglas movie (not "Fatal Attraction", but the other one).