Chris, I just knew you would like to read this!
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An excerpt:
Much of the current debate about Rice's VP chances in 2004 revolves around her position on abortion and whether it will be palatable to conservatives. Rice has been pretty coy on the subject. And who can blame her? She's not a politician (yet)--she's a foreign policy wonk, for heaven's sake. In 1999, after stepping down as provost at Stanford to work for Bush's campaign, she told the San Francisco Chronicle that despite her devout Presbyterian background, she is a "pro-choice evangelical," and that "there's a lot of room in the middle [on abortion]. . . . I don't think Americans think abortion is something you do lightly." Later that year, she told National Review's Jay Nordlinger that she is "mildly pro-choice," and more generally, an "all-over-the-map Republican" whose views are "hard to typecast."
These vague statements have a few conservatives muttering nervously. Which, in turn, already has some socially libertarian bloggers screaming that conservatives are intolerant troglodytes who will let the abortion issue disqualify even someone as appealing as Rice from the national ticket.
This is unfair and ridiculous, of course. What irritates pro-life conservative Republicans isn't the existence of pro-choice Republicans per se. What irritates them are pro-choice Republicans who constantly raise the issue merely to bash their own party and win valentines from the overwhelmingly pro-choice media. (See Dick Riordan, Christie Todd Whitman, Colin Powell.) But no matter how much these pro-choice Republicans whine, the GOP will always be a pro-life party. Why? Because the abortion issue goes to the heart of what both major parties are about. For Democrats, it's a proxy for their entire worldview regarding sexual freedom and unfettered moral autonomy. For Republicans, being pro-life is about remaining the party of Lincoln: Just like slavery, unlimited abortion on demand threatens equality (and thus liberty) by denying a class of human beings their inalienable rights and equal dignity merely because it is convenient to do so.
And Condi Rice has been advanced by WISH List, a Republican women's group dedicated to electing pro-choice women, as a candidate for California Governor.
PING!