Posted on 03/06/2005 8:24:23 PM PST by metalmanx2j
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New Democratic Party chief Howard Dean (news - web sites) is promising to make foes of abortion more welcome, and some potential Senate candidates are already testing that message.
"We are going to embrace pro-life Democrats because pro-life Democrats care about kids after they're born, not just before they're born," Dean said recently in Mississippi as he tried to rekindle Democratic fires in the conservative South.
With the next congressional elections still more than a year-and-a-half away, anti-abortion rights Democrats may run in both Pennsylvania and Rhode Island -- and in Rhode Island the Democrat would be challenging one of the few Republican senators who backs abortion rights.
Pennsylvania state treasurer Robert Casey Jr., a strong abortion foe, recently announced plans to challenge Republican Sen. Rick Santorum (news, bio, voting record), a prominent social conservative who is closely identified with the anti-abortion movement and who will be one of the Democrats' top targets in 2006.
A fellow Democrat, a woman who backs abortion rights, quickly stepped out of the race to allow Pennsylvania Democrats to rally around Casey and avoid a primary season fight over abortion. Insiders view Casey as the best placed to defeat Santorum.
Casey's father, the former Pennsylvania governor who also strongly opposed abortion, was barred from speaking at the Democratic national convention in 1992.
DWINDLING BAND
In Rhode Island, Democrat Rep. Jim Langevin may run against Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee (news, bio, voting record), among the dwindling band of moderate Republicans who back abortion rights. That would put some pro-abortion rights activists, who generally lean Democratic, in a bind.
Langevin, a Catholic, grew up in a home where his parents took in foster children. A quadriplegic, he has been in a wheelchair since as a 16-year-old Eagle Scout he was accidentally shot in a police locker room.
"I realize every day how precious life is, despite all my challenges," he said in a recent interview. "I wouldn't deprive anyone of that experience."
Dean's message, Langevin said, tells him that "this is going to be a party of inclusion." While Langevin disagrees with most Democrats on abortion, he said shares the party's core beliefs on most other policies, including what's best for children and families.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, anti-abortion Democrats have run with party leader endorsement in the past, particularly in conservative states, and are likely to do so again. Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi of California backs abortion rights but "she wants Democrats who can win," her spokesman said.
While Democrats are likely to remain closely identified with abortion, some voices are urging them to try to soften or shift the focus.
Sen. Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) of Nevada, the Democratic Senate leader, personally opposes abortion, and while he isn't urging his party to abandon its traditional stance he is pushing a bill to reduce abortions through better teen pregnancy prevention and greater insurance coverage of family planning services.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (news, bio, voting record), an Ohio Democrat who opposes federal funding for abortion but has had a mixed record on other abortion-related legislation, noted that most voters don't choose a candidate solely on the one issue.
And she thinks Democrats would do themselves and voters a favor by talking less about abortion and more about "the things women and mothers care most about-- economic security, health, education."
"Democrats have to do a better job of presenting themselves as being pro-family from the very beginning of life to its ultimate conclusion," she said.
I don't know whether to laugh at this statement or shake my head in disgust!
We are winning the hearts and souls of America. When 60% of America is for abortion restrictions Republicans and rats will fight to pass pro-life legislation. Some Republicans are one issue voters. Sometimes it is guns, taxes, or immigration. For me abortion is my pet issue. I will vote for a RINO if the rat is an abortion fan. I don't know if I would vote for a soft on life Republican over a strong pro-life rat, but I welcome pro-life rats to run. I pray this issue will become non-partisan soon.
To most of us on this board, that is like saying the sky is blue. Still, I've never before heard a rat voice that sentiment. Welcome to reality.
This a card the Dems can play once. Once prolife Democrat is in office will he/she give in to DNC pressure when a GOP sponsored bill that is prolife is up for a vote. Daschle used to be conservative when he ran as Senator for SD, but once in office he fell in line with the liberal Dem Senators.
This has got to hurt the rabid pro-aborts in the party.
10 times out of 10 I will vote for a pro-life candidate. If there isn't one, I don't vote for that particular seat. It is an evil I cannot abide.
I am ssoooo glad Dean is DNC chair!
I'm very realistic. I understand that the most important vote a pro-life rat or Republican will make is who is the majority leader. Still I am heartened by the pro-life comeback in the rat party. I am not too cynical to think that a rat who endures the scorn of his fellow rats may endure more scorn for his principled vote. This is good news no matter how I read it.
"It is a CHILD. not a choice." That said, I hope the Dems do field right to lifers - perhaps we can get a few more decent judges and the Reps won't take us for granted as they seem to be doing now.
Its true that Democrats are under too much pressure to really stand up for the right to life once they are elected. Daschle is the perfect example of someone who sold his soul. Harry Reid is another as his supposed "pro-life" record is only about 50-50. If elected, Casey Jr will also sell out.
There was, at one time in the past, a type of Dem who was pretty conservative. They were against abortion, valued the 2nd amendment, opposed the sodomite agenda, "free trade" with slave-owning empires, etc. They still liked big government a la the New Deal, but at least they were patriotic. These folks were mainly located in the South and Midwest. Since the Dem party was completely taken over by the Gramscian-Bobo left in the 90s, most of those remaining have left the party in disgust (Zell Miller and SwiftVet John O'Neil being good examples).
If Dean is genuinely trying to win these folks back, the Stupid Party might actually face a serious challenge, wedded as it is to every corporate welfare queen imaginable, the open-borders jihad from the Wall Street Journal - along with its support of folks like Chaffee and Specter (who never heard of an abortion they didn't like). I can't imagine that the Evil Party is this desperate, though. After all, they still have to please their paymasters in Hollywood, Soros and his fellow hi-rollers. I have a hard time taking "Mad Dog" Dean seriously.
"In Rhode Island, Democrat Rep. Jim Langevin may run against Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee (news, bio, voting record), among the dwindling band of moderate Republicans who back abortion rights."
Chaffee is a "moderate" republican, while f.ex. Zell Miller is a "conservative" democrat. Go figure...
when Salazar (D-Colorado) campaigned for Senate, he said he thought judges should get a vote. Now he's asked Bush to remove all the nominees that never got votes bc they're too divisive!
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