Here is Al Gore’s voting record on abortion while in the House and Senate: http://nchla.org/keyresults.asp?state=&locale=checkcongper&congper=Gore&zip=&plusfour=&year=1975&year2=1992&issue=&terms=-1&bills=-1&vote=&displaysize=10&displaystarts=1&displaystarth=1&submit=Search+Key+Votes&displaystarts=11&displaystarts=21&displaystarts=31&displaystarts=1&displaystarth=11&displaystarth=21&displaystarth=31&displaystarth=21&displaystarth=11&displaystarth=1
As BillyBoy and Impy stated, Gore was generally pro-life in the House (he cast a handful of pro-abortion votes over the years), but within less than a year of joining the Senate he was 100% pro-abortion (he did cast a couple of pro-life votes as a first-year Senator).
But let’s be sure not to judge late-1980s conservative Democrats lest we be judged. The 1988 Democratic presidential field was Left and Lefter, and Al Gore was by all accounts the least liberal of the bunch. Gore had a reputation as a moderate on social and economic issues and as a hawk on defense—I’m not saying that I believe that he was anything but an across-the-board liberal, even more liberal than the overrated Sam Nunn and Scoop Jackson (few people realize that Jackson cast pro-abortion votes in 35 of the 36 abortion-related votes he took, and Nunn voted pro-abortion most of the time and even voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban), but to a conservative Democrat who was trying to lead his party away from its liberalism he was the only game in town. Soon thereafter Rick Perry eventually realized that the Democrat Party was beyond salvation and that he could no longer continue to call himself a Democrat, and switched to the GOP in 1989 (just 6 years after Phil Gramm switched, and 5 or 6 years before Southern Democrats Ed Whitfield, Mike Bowers, Fob James, Richard Shelby, Woody Jenkins, Billy Tauzin, Nathan Deal, Mike Parker and Mike Foster switched; current NM Gov. Susana Martinez also switched from Dem to Republican 6 years after Perry did) without having to change any of his views.
There are several reasons why conservatives should be wary of nominating Rick Perry for president, but I don’t think that the fact that he was a Democrat back in 1988 and supported the least liberal Democratic presidential candidate out there is one of them.
I would dispute that. There's a clip on youtube of a 1988 Gore for President ad, and it showcases Gore running to Dick Gephart's LEFT in a Democrat primary debate and hammering Gephart for repeatedly voting for "Reagan's budget" and against the teacher's unions, etc., etc. I think Gore may have pretended to be moderate in public but the bottom line is anyone with an IQ over 3 KNEW he was a liberal at the time and I'm sure Perry knew it when he campaigned for him. All this stuff about "Gore wasn't an global warming alarmist back then" is false. In fact, given that Perry was a RAT and trying to tout Gore's virtues to other RATs, I doubt Perry c. 1988 would have claimed to 'strongly disagree' with Gore on global warming. Most likely he would have applauded Gore for raising awareness of the issue and cited it as a plus for his fellow Texas Dems. I'm getting sick of this history revisionism. All the Perry camp has to say is "Yes I'm supported Gore's liberal agenda back then, it was a mistake and I've learned from it and regret it." But noooo, they will argue to death that Gore was conservative back then.
>> an across-the-board liberal, even more liberal than the overrated Sam Nunn and Scoop Jackson (few people realize that Jackson cast pro-abortion votes in 35 of the 36 abortion-related votes he took, and Nunn voted pro-abortion most of the time and even voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban) <<
Alot of the so-called "conservative" Dems from that era are greatly overrated. I remember a bunch of freepers who were heaping praise on "conservative" Sam Nunn started whining how they were "disappointed" and "lost alot of respect for Sam" when he endorsed Obama for President in the primary and Obama seriously considered him for veep. Fortunately for me, I had no respect for the pro-abortion, gun-grabbing Sam Nunn to begin with, so there was none to lose. Even Zig Zag Zell Miller was greatly overrated. He didn't vote RELIABLY "conservative" until his final few months in office AFTER he had announced his retirement. Prior to that, he cast the deciding vote to hand over the Senate to Tom Daschle and tried to get Max Cleland re-elected. Some "conservative". At best, you could say he turned out to be far more moderate than any of the other Georgia RATs considered for Senate, but his record still paled in comparison to the Republicans that preceded and succeeded him. In fact, the "RINO" who replaced him had a far more reliably conservative record. I really have to wonder about the Georgia "freepers" who would prefer the less conservative RAT in that seat. If they truly like Zig Zag better, I'd say they're the ones in the wrong party, but that's another topic.
>> There are several reasons why conservatives should be wary of nominating Rick Perry for president, but I don’t think that the fact that he was a Democrat back in 1988 and supported the least liberal Democratic presidential candidate out there is one of them. <<
If it was an isolated incident, I don't think it would play much of a factor, but when you look at the fact Perry was the only GOP governor to endorse Rudy Giuliani for President 20 years later, it looks very bad. Perry has a pattern of supporting liberals for political expediency, he's not the "Tea party conservative" he and his fans tout him as. And I would love to move on from the Gore stuff and discuss Perry's record NOW because that's more revelevant, but these Perry fans won't even admit they were wrong after the facts about Gore's record are posted here. On another thread, some Perrybot is STILL referring to Gore as a "pro-life, pro-gun, pro-family, pro-tobacco, old fashioned conservative southern Democrat who hadn't discovered global warming yet when Perry endorsed him"
I have a real problem with the history revisionists here who outright lie about a candidate's stances to make their guy look better. On the Perry threads, they keep saying "pro-life Al Gore" no matter how many times we prove he was pro-abortion in 1988. On the Chris Christie threads, they keep saying "pro-abortion Chris Christie" no matter how long he governs with a reliably 100% pro-life record in New Jersey. The fact Perry backers and Christie bashers have to continually resort to "accidentally" posting total falsehoods to sell their argument says volumes about the kind of people they are.
I don’t give much of a crap about him being a rat then either but I can’t abide these people spinning their webs of lies to santize their chosen champion’s sketchy past.
Gore may have been the least liberal (my feeling also is that would actually have been pre-leadership Dick Gephardt) but still was one. Point is Perry was an honest to goodness loyal good ole boy establishment democrat not an arch-conservative Reagan-loving DINO from fairytale land.
Backing Rudy just 4 years ago was worse, just going by abortion let alone anything else. One would conclude abortion is not a priority for Rick with him backing the only Republican in the race that wasn’t pro-life and that was pro-gay (and add that to Rick apparently being cool with states choosing to allow gay marriage).
Interesting article
though in reason 10 it regurgitates Perry’s talking points and outright calls Gore “then conservative”.
The single biggest problem with Perry appears to be immigration.