Who said that the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling which legalized abortion -- under certain conditions - is "the settled law of the land?" Was that the Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America? Was it former Democratic Congresswoman Leslie Byrne, running for Lt. Governor of Virginia? Or was it Tim Kaine, the Democratic nominee for Governor? Nope. In fact, it was John Roberts, President Bush's conservative nominee to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court, speaking in 2003 to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Interestingly, the American people agree with Roberts (and Kaine and Byrne, for that matter), by a 59%-32% margin in a recent CBS News Poll. In fact, only 18% of Americans answer "never" or "only to save the woman's life" when asked whether abortion: "(1) It should be permitted in all cases. (2) It should be permitted, but subject to greater restrictions than it is now. (3) It should be permitted only in cases such as rape, incest and to save the woman's life. OR, (4) It should only be permitted to save the woman's life." This separates the overwhelming majority - 82% -- of the American people from the Virginia Republican Attorney General nominee, "Taliban Bob" McDonnell, who is against abortion in every case except where a woman's life is in danger. And even there, McDonnell sponsored a bill in the House of Delegates that would have banned the late-term, "partial-birth abortion" procedure without an exception for the health of the mother. So actually, McDonnell's abortion position may only be shared by a miniscule 3% of Americans.
And what about Jerry Kilgore? What is HIS position on abortion? That's a good question, because Kilgore won't really say in public. For instance, at the Greenbrier debate a couple of weekends ago, Kilgore refused to answer the "hypothetical" question, "If Roe v. Wade were overturned, and the General Assembly passed a bill further restricting abortion, would you sign it into law?" As Waldo Jaquith points out on his blog:
What?s totally appalling...is that Kilgore thinks that abortion should be illegal, even in cases of rape and incest, unless the rape is reported within a week. That, of course, is long before the victim would know that she?s been impregnated by her rapist. (I don?t know what makes seven days so special.) Not a lot of 12-year-old girls go to the police after they?ve been raped by a parent of guardian. Kilgore would force this little girl to be pregnant, presumably ending her life as she knows it. You know, in case the rape itself wasn?t sufficiently traumatic.[...]
With the nomination of John Roberts, of course, it?s not so hypothetical. If Jerry Kilgore is elected to governor, Virginia may well be the state that bans abortion altogether.
That's right, Jerry Kilgore is another anti-abortion extremist like "Taliban Bob," with his views shared by at most 18% of Americans, and possibly as few as 3% on this issue. As Jaquith says, "I can see why he dodged the question." And I ask, once again, how this Kilgore/Bolling/McDonnell ticket is in touch with the mainstream of Virginia voters? Finally, how does the Kilgore/Bolling/McDonnell trio not qualify as the most extreme, far-right-wing ticket in Virginia history - on abortion, guns, capital punishment. tax referenda, and more?
Every Democratic friend that I know is pro-free trade.
many live in the 8th congressional district.
-Paid for by the PlutoCrats
Moran will then immediately start complaining about CAFTA afterwards, just like he complains about the Patriot Act and No Child Left Behind, both of which he voted for.
Watch. Moran will ooze with fake compassion for Central American AIDs victims who lost their access to generic AIDS drugs under CAFTA, once CAFTA is passed.
Moran is a smarmy deceitful elitist living in two mansions and tricking Dems who don't know any better. I am trying to learn not to be angry at Moran supporters and simply accept that they are dimwits who cannot help it.
Oh, Paul (July 27th, 2005 at 10:54 am) nice display of not being one of members of the firing squad mowing down peasants concerned about injustice and suffering.
And Jami (July 27th, 2005 at 12:41 pm) Hilary did not speak out once against CAFTA. She only voted against it when she saw that her vote wasn't needed to pass it in the Senate.
hillary's also against cafta. but we have to stop utterly dismissing one another on the left over disagreement on one or two issues. we can continue to disagree and try to convince each other, but we should disagree with the issue, not the person we believe to be mistaken, if they support a good 95% of the other issues we care about.
I promise you.
I wouldn't have anti-free trade friends.
I do not know of Rick Boucher's stance on CAFTA, but I know one thing; The Ninth District is strongly against it. We have an employment problem here already, and Rep. Boucher is doing what he can, and we don't need CAFTA working against us.
We should not drum them out of the party. We should simply suggest that if they are incumbents then they move to districts where their views resonate with Democratic voters.
What percentage of Dems in the 8th support CAFTA? I bet it is much less than ten percent. I have not heard of any, except one: our congressman, James P. Moran, Jr. What is to stop Moran from moving to a red district and trying to represent it as Rick Boucher does?
Why should an extremely liberal gerrymandered Dem district like the 8th be represented by someone whose views on economic matters such as CAFTA, debt slavery, nuclear power etc. are very much more in line with Republicans than Democrats.
It is not as if Dems lose the 8th if we don't elect a pseudoDem. On the contrary. A credible third party progressive candidate could sink Moran in 2006 and tip the election.
And if two years of Republican representation of the 8th that is the only way to get someone good in office for the next 20 years after that then so be it.
A big tent is fine somewhere else. Liberals don't need a big tent in the 8th. Its our tent.