NOW Illinois President sets record straight on Lorna Brett's comments re: Obama "Present" votes...

By: SaveElmer
Published On: 1/31/2008 3:56:37 PM

Previously posted on RK here...

http://www.raisingkaine.com/sh...

Bonnie Grabenhofer, President of NOW Illinois , sent the follwing email to Taylor Marsh...


I thought I'd take a moment to try to add some clarity to the anti-choice Present votes in IL.

Lorna Brett was president of CNOW from 1996-1998. She was not president at the time we were lobbying on these bills. Five of those votes occurred in the 92nd General Assembly session in 2001. NOW records indicate that she hasn't been a member since 1999. She was not there when we were lobbying against these bills. She is using her very old affiliation with NOW to try to validate her criticism of Hillary Clinton.

Voting Present on those bills was a strategy that Illinois NOW did not support. We made it clear at the time that we disagreed with the strategy. We wanted legislators to take a stand against the awful anti-choice bills being put forth. Voting Present doesn't provide a platform from which to show leadership and say with conviction that we support a woman's right to choose and these bills are unacceptable.

The Present strategy was devised to give political cover to legislators in conservative districts. Barack Obama did not represent a conservative district; he could have voted No with very little negative consequence in his district.

- Bonnie Grabenhofer
IL NOW State President

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Comments



Here is the real story..... (Flipper - 1/31/2008 4:34:00 PM)
SaveElemr has it all wrong.  The voting "present" strategy was a strategy put in place by Planned Parenthood and NARAL in Illinois.  If NOW chose not to follow this stratgey, that was their choice.  But for the Clinton campaign and NOW to accuse Obama of not being pro-choice is wrong.  SO, if you want the FACTS, as opposed to the spin, read the enclosed article by Karen Mulhauser, former executive director of NARAL, on the Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...



SaveElmer doesn't contribute (DanG - 1/31/2008 4:48:23 PM)
There are Clinton people here who actually contribute, like az and Dianne.  Elmer intentionally goes out of his way to start stuff here.  Ignore him, and maybe it'll go away.


I think we have a possible (Lowell - 1/31/2008 4:54:06 PM)


Uncalled for...and beneath you... (SaveElmer - 1/31/2008 5:07:05 PM)


ya know what? it is his site (teacherken - 1/31/2008 5:17:26 PM)
and whatever he decides is appropriate is appropriate

and you are lucky that you were not troll rated for that comment

the appropriate response on his part might well be a Hunterism   (and if you don't know what that is, you are not all that connected with the progressive blogophere)

and that Hunterism?

Bite me!



COMMENT HIDDEN (SaveElmer - 1/31/2008 5:21:40 PM)


have a donut (teacherken - 1/31/2008 5:57:38 PM)


oh, and one other thing - Madison could spell (teacherken - 1/31/2008 5:18:19 PM)
and you can't    the word is separation


Cut and pasted from the AU website... (SaveElmer - 1/31/2008 5:22:10 PM)
Sorry to offend you


maybe... (Chris Guy - 1/31/2008 10:06:04 PM)
but you gotta admit that picture's pretty cool.


Taylor Marsh . . . (JPTERP - 2/1/2008 6:09:09 PM)
Two words that can pretty much be summed up by the words "political hack".