Conservatives look to Court nominee fight

WASHINGTON, May 17 (UPI) -- U.S. conservatives say they want to revive their flagging fortunes by uniting in a fight against President Barack Obama's upcoming Supreme Court pick.

Hurt by losses in Congress and with some prominent conservative groups facing smaller budgets, leaders are hoping an ideological campaign against Obama's choice to succeed Supreme Court Justice David Souter could revive the movement, The New York Times reported Sunday.

The newspaper said 10 memorandums it obtained indicated Obama's conservative opponents planned to attack his possible court nominees as too friendly to abortion and same-sex marriage, or as "willing to expand constitutional rights beyond the text of the Constitution" or to recognize international law.

"(The Court vacancy) is an immense opportunity to build the conservative movement and identify the troops out there," Richard Viguerie, a conservative fundraiser, told the newspaper. "It's a massive teaching moment for America. We've got the packages written. We're waiting right now to put a name in."

Liberal groups, however, told the Times attempts to cherry-pick cases to portray Obama's nominee as a radical will fail.