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Romney Pharma Chief's Fundraiser - Fr. Pavone on Romney (long title, excerpted)
National Catholic Register ^ | May 26, 2012 | Brian Fraga

Posted on 05/26/2012 6:52:48 AM PDT by bboop

... On May 16, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, visited the Miami home of Dr. Philip Frost, the chairman of the board of Teva Pharmaceuticals, an Israel-based company that produces many different medicines, including regular contraceptives. Teva is also one of the country's largest producers of generic drugs. ... “At this point, the sentiment of most pro-life leaders and activists I am in contact with is that this election is about avoiding the unmitigated disaster of a second Obama term," said Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life. "This is not the first nor the last objection that will be raised against Governor Romney, and I don’t dispute the seriousness of it. But what is often called the choice of the lesser of two evils is not a choice for evil; it is a choice to reduce evil. And to reduce evil is a good," Father Pavone told the Register. ... "The biggest concern is we have two choices for president, and Mitt Romney is going to be much better from our point of view," said Anne Fox, president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life. Fox told the Register that she "did not have a lot to say" about the Romney fundraiser, which she suggested is being reported in the media to benefit Obama.

"They (the media) don't care if Romney is pro-life or not. They care about getting us upset, splitting us and having us not vote," Fox said. Kristi Hamrick, a spokeswoman for Americans United for Life, told the Register that AUL has not commented on the fundraiser, and "really cannot easily weigh in on an issue of direct partisan politics." ...

(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: abo; abortion; election; romney
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To: EternalVigilance
These celebrity priests always turn out to be deeply flawed in one way or another. One after another.
21 posted on 05/26/2012 9:21:22 AM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by nature not nurture TM)
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To: EternalVigilance
You don’t move the country in a conservative direction

Aren't you the guy who is running for President from that party Alan Keyes used last time around? Didn't that loon Cynthia McKinney even get like two or three times as many votes as your party got in 2008? You are hardly one to talk about moving the country in a conservative direction. All you are doing is splintering off a few thousand right of center voters. Sorry, but a teenager putting up Romney signs in median strips for HS government class credit is doing more to move this country in a conservative direction than you are.

22 posted on 05/26/2012 9:22:50 AM PDT by Longbow1969
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To: Charles Henrickson

The Tenth Amendment speaks only of legitimate powers, of the general government, the states, and the people.

But our free republic is premised upon the self-evident truth that all men are created equal, endowed BY THEIR CREATOR with certain unalienable rights, starting with the right to life. Notice that those rights are not granted by men, period. Not by our national government. Not by the states. Not by the people themselves.

Not only do the states have no legitimate power to alienate God-given, unalienable rights, they have a sworn obligation to protect them. It’s not optional. It is imperative. This is the primary reason these governments, these offices, all of them, exist.

“No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law.”

“No State shall deprive any person of life without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

I find it amazing that one has to contend on FreeRepublic.com for the ABCs of American self-government.


23 posted on 05/26/2012 9:28:06 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (Party like it's 1860.- America's Party - www.SelfGovernment.US)
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To: Longbow1969

“Splintering them off” from what? A pro-choice democrat socialist?

Look, we’re gathering up principled conservatives, in order to reestablish a culture of principle in our politics once again.

And I assure you, principled conservatives aren’t going to be voting for Mitt Romney in any case.

So, what are you worried about?


24 posted on 05/26/2012 9:32:11 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (Party like it's 1860.- America's Party - www.SelfGovernment.US)
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To: Charles Henrickson
National Right to Life and Susan B. Anthony List have both endorsed Romney - along with other pro-life/pro-family groups such as the National Organization for Marriage.

National Right to Life said Romney "has taken a strong pro-life position and is committed to implementing policies to protect the unborn." The organization said Romney:

-- opposes Roe v. Wade, having called the 1973 decision a "big mistake."

-- supports the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortions.

-- backs the Mexico City Policy, which bans federal funds for organizations that perform or promote abortions in foreign countries.

"On pro-life issues, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama provide a stark contrast," said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. "As the country's most pro-abortion president, Barack Obama has pursued a radical pro-abortion agenda. It is now time for pro-life Americans to unite behind Mitt Romney. For the sake of unborn children, the disabled, and the elderly, we must win."

The Susan B. Anthony List made similar points and added that Romney has pledged to "appoint only constitutionalist judges to the federal bench" and also to defund Planned Parenthood.

For the purposes of this particular national general election, those endorsements are good enough for me on the social issue front. Romney is a flip flopper and I don't trust him, but he will be better than Obama on these issues.

25 posted on 05/26/2012 9:33:37 AM PDT by Longbow1969
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To: Charles Henrickson
So do you DEFEND Roe v. Wade??

No, I ignore it, just like I ignore Dred Scott.

It's nothing more than an immoral, unconstitutional court opinion in one particular case.

Romney, on the other hand, being the anti-constitution, anti-republican judicial supremacist that he is, thinks courts make laws.

But they don't. Article One, Section One of the Constitution grants that power only to the Congress.

The cold hard fact is that Romney's position, even constantly modified as it has been for political purposes, remains that of a pro-choice democrat.

26 posted on 05/26/2012 9:37:22 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (Party like it's 1860.- America's Party - www.SelfGovernment.US)
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To: Longbow1969
National Right to Life and Susan B. Anthony List have both endorsed Romney - along with other pro-life/pro-family groups such as the National Organization for Marriage.

Follow the money.

27 posted on 05/26/2012 9:38:31 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (Party like it's 1860.- America's Party - www.SelfGovernment.US)
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To: EternalVigilance
And I assure you, principled conservatives aren’t going to be voting for Mitt Romney in any case.

What kind of arrogant statement is that? Good grief man. Your presidential run is off to a bad start if that is the sort of thing you go around saying. You don't consider people like Mark Levin a principled conservative? Political realities are what they are, and the MAJORITY of principled conservatives recognize that only Romney or Obama have any chance to win. General elections are NOT an affirmative endorsement of any candidate, they are simply a choice between the candidates that have any chance to win. MOST principled conservatives are going to vote for Romney, but that doesn't mean they support or like him - only that they realize Hussein is a far worse alternative.

Look, we’re gathering up principled conservatives, in order to reestablish a culture of principle in our politics once again.

No you're not. You are feeding your ego and encouraging a few thousand voters to flush their ballots down the crapper. You're party is going nowhere and you know it.

I've no doubt you are probably very smart and insightful when it comes to specific political ideas and issues. Heck, maybe brilliant. The problem is you are directing your energy in such a way that you waste all that knowledge and up hurting conservatism far more than helping it.

28 posted on 05/26/2012 9:44:20 AM PDT by Longbow1969
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To: steve86

“These celebrity priests always turn out to be deeply flawed in one way or another. One after another.”

Always?


29 posted on 05/26/2012 9:53:20 AM PDT by stanne
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To: Longbow1969

There are words, and there are actions.

Folks can tell me how conservative they are til the cows come home, but if they support liberals I’m going to believe their actions.

It’s only common sense.


30 posted on 05/26/2012 9:59:16 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (Party like it's 1860.- America's Party - www.SelfGovernment.US)
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To: EternalVigilance; Longbow1969
Follow the money.

Since you make that accusation against longtime pro-lifers who are endorsing Romney, one could likewise say "Follow the money" in regard to what you are doing. You have a vested financial interest (I assume you accept donations) in drawing supporters away from Romney and to your candidacy.

Now I am not saying you are doing what you're doing for the money, but then I don't think you should say committed pro-lifers are endorsing Romney because of money.

31 posted on 05/26/2012 10:00:05 AM PDT by Charles Henrickson (Constitutional and social conservative Republican who wants to win)
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To: EternalVigilance; Longbow1969; Drew68; Innovative; altura
So do you DEFEND Roe v. Wade??

No, I ignore it. . . . It's nothing more than an immoral, unconstitutional court opinion. . . .

So you IGNORE an unconstitutional court opinion, which could be overturned with a good SC appointment or two, which in turn would be the biggest pro-life victory we've had ever since abortion became legal. You thereby prove your irrelevance.

32 posted on 05/26/2012 10:06:21 AM PDT by Charles Henrickson (Constitutional and social conservative Republican who wants to win)
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To: stanne

That has certainly been the pattern recently.


33 posted on 05/26/2012 10:08:20 AM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by nature not nurture TM)
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To: Longbow1969
General elections are NOT an affirmative endorsement of any candidate, they are simply a choice between the candidates that have any chance to win.

The founders of this republic had a very different opinion.

"If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God."

-- George Washington

"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual - or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country."

-- Samuel Adams

"Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust be men of unexceptionable characters. The public cannot be too curious concerning the character of public men."

-- Samuel Adams

"Consider well the important trust . . . which God . . . [has] put into your hands. . . . To God and posterity you are accountable for [your rights and your rulers]. . . . Let not your children have reason to curse you for giving up those rights and prostrating those institutions which your fathers delivered to you. . . . [L]ook well to the characters and qualifications of those you elect and raise to office and places of trust. . . . Think not that your interests will be safe in the hands of the weak and ignorant; or faithfully managed by the impious, the dissolute and the immoral. Think not that men who acknowledge not the providence of God nor regard His laws will be uncorrupt in office, firm in defense of the righteous cause against the oppressor, or resolutely oppose the torrent of iniquity. . . . Watch over your liberties and privileges - civil and religious - with a careful eye."

-- Matthias Burnett

"[T]he time has come that Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics or the Lord will curse them. . . . Christians have been exceedingly guilty in this matter. But the time has come when they must act differently. . . . Christians seem to act as if they thought God did not see what they do in politics. But I tell you He does see it - and He will bless or curse this nation according to the course they take."

-- Charles Finney

"Now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature. . . . f the next centennial does not find us a great nation . . . it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces."

- James Garfield

"If the time ever comes when we shall go to pieces, it will . . . be . . . from inward corruption - from the disregard of right principles . . . from losing sight of the fact that "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but that sin is a reproach to any people" [Proverbs 14:34]. . . .[T]he secession of the Southern States in 1860 was a small matter with the secession of the Union itself from the great principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, in the Golden Rule, in the Ten Commandments, in the Sermon on the Mount. Unless we hold, and hold firmly to these great fundamental principles of righteousness, . . . our Union . . . will be "only a covenant with death and an agreement with hell.""

-- Francis Grimke

"A share in the sovereignty of the state, which is exercised by the citizens at large, in voting at elections is one of the most important rights of the subject, and in a republic ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law."

-- Alexander Hamilton

"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." "The Americans are the first people whom Heaven has favored with an opportunity of deliberating upon and choosing the forms of government under which they should live."

-- John Jay

"The elective franchise, if guarded as the ark of our safety, will peaceably dissipate all combinations to subvert a Constitution, dictated by the wisdom, and resting on the will of the people." "S]hould things go wrong at any time, the people will set them to rights by the peaceable exercise of their elective rights."

-- Thomas Jefferson

"Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them; and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend upon men than men upon governments. Let men be good and the government cannot be bad. . . . But if men be bad, let the government be never so good, they will endeavor to warp and spoil it to their turn. . . .[T]hough good laws do well, good men do better; for good laws may want [lack] good men and be abolished or invaded by ill men; but good men will never want good laws nor suffer [allow] ill ones."

-- William Penn

"Impress upon children the truth that the exercise of the elective franchise is a social duty of as solemn a nature as man can be called to perform; that a man may not innocently trifle with his vote; that every elector is a trustee as well for others as himself and that every measure he supports has an important bearing on the interests of others as well as on his own."

-- Daniel Webster

"In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate - look to his character. . . . When a citizen gives his suffrage to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor, he betrays the interest of his country." "When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, "just men who will rule in the fear of God." The preservation of government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; if the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be sqandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded. If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws."

-- Noah Webster

"Those who wish well to the State ought to choose to places of trust men of inward principle, justified by exemplary conversation. . . .[And t]he people in general ought to have regard to the moral character of those whom they invest with authority either in the legislative, executive, or judicial branches."

-- John Witherspoon

"We electors have an important constitutional power placed in our hands: we have a check upon two branches of the legislature, as each branch has upon the other two; the power I mean of electing at stated periods, one branch, which branch has the power of electing another. It becomes necessary to every subject then, to be in some degree a statesman: and to examine and judge for himself of the tendencies of political principles and measures."

-- John Adams


34 posted on 05/26/2012 10:09:36 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (Party like it's 1860.- America's Party - www.SelfGovernment.US)
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To: Charles Henrickson
So you IGNORE an unconstitutional court opinion...[?]

Every officer of government, in every branch, at every level, in this free republic is required to swear to support the Constitution, not the courts.

“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution..."

-- Article VI, the United States Constitution

Can you point me to that part of the Supreme Law of the Land that would indicate otherwise, or perhaps some amendment I've missed?

35 posted on 05/26/2012 10:15:34 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (Party like it's 1860.- America's Party - www.SelfGovernment.US)
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To: Charles Henrickson
You thereby prove your irrelevance.

Indeed. Complete and utter irrelevance. Then again, this is a "presidential candidate" who seems to have an enormous amount of time to not only post on political forums, but to declare that no principled conservative would vote for Romney. I am fairly certain his relevance to the political process is bordering on none anyway.

36 posted on 05/26/2012 10:16:12 AM PDT by Longbow1969
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To: Charles Henrickson
which could be overturned with a good SC appointment or two, which in turn would be the biggest pro-life victory we've had ever since abortion became legal.

I've heard these empty promises my whole adult life. And still, the holocaust continues.

And will, until destruction falls on our heads, as long as we continue to elect pro-choice democrats like Obama and Romney.

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever."

-- Thomas Jefferson


37 posted on 05/26/2012 10:18:50 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (Party like it's 1860.- America's Party - www.SelfGovernment.US)
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To: Charles Henrickson
Since you make that accusation against longtime pro-lifers who are endorsing Romney, one could likewise say "Follow the money" in regard to what you are doing. You have a vested financial interest (I assume you accept donations) in drawing supporters away from Romney and to your candidacy.

Now I am not saying you are doing what you're doing for the money, but then I don't think you should say committed pro-lifers are endorsing Romney because of money.

That's what you get for making assumptions.

America's Party: No donations

Tom Hoefling: I don't want your money.


38 posted on 05/26/2012 10:25:46 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (Party like it's 1860.- America's Party - www.SelfGovernment.US)
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To: EternalVigilance

Even so, you should not imply that pro-lifers are endorsing Romney because of financial gain, which is what you did with your “Follow the money” comment. You are making an assumption about ther motives, which you do not know.


39 posted on 05/26/2012 10:30:31 AM PDT by Charles Henrickson (Constitutional and social conservative Republican who wants to win)
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To: stanne; EternalVigilance
Whom did he embrace?

Note that when you pin him down on it, he tries to squirm away by claiming he was referring to Romney, but he wasn't. Here's what was posted:

Fr. Pavone has a history of politically embracing liberals and compromisers of truth and principle using this theory of his, and it’s killing us.

We're not stupid EV - we can read. You're an intellectual coward who can't admit that you f***ed up. At least in this particular instance.

Despite his faults (real faults or the imaginary faults ascribed to him by you) Father Pavone has saved more lives than you could in ten lifetimes.

Your blathering on FR doesn't save lives.

40 posted on 05/26/2012 10:32:19 AM PDT by AAABEST (Et lux in tenebris lucet: et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt)
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