There is a difference between the past and now.
Several differences.
In the past, there was no clear Senate majority, House Majority, a Republican President, and an ill Supreme Court Chief Justice.
The last time a Republican President got to name a justice to the Supreme Court, it was the pro-choice David Souter.
More importantly, we just had an election.
And something very different happened in this election: the Catholic Church, all the way from its leaders in Rome, broke out abortion as an issue trumping other political issues, and essentially (if subtly) directed Catholics how to vote.
That never happened before.
I note that the Republicans during the election were pushing a lot harder. Many wanted the Church to make a public spectacle out of denying John Kerry communion because of his pro-choice stance.
Well, the election was a week ago now.
And on the day after election, the Republican who is slated to take over the Senate Judiciary Committee says that he's not going to permit judges who will overturn Roe v. Wade.
Nothing like the pro-life, organized Catholic vote every turned out in any election like this time. And it was abortion that caused the Church to mobilize like that. And it was Catholic numbers, in particular, that clunked down on the scale alongside of the long-fighting Evangelicals on the issue, and provided the margin that carried Bush and the GOP over the top.
And then, THE DAY AFTER THE ELECTION, Specter arises, and the Republican pro-life stance - the REASON millions turned out to vote the day before - is suddenly negotiable, suddenly in the balance with what? Senate seniority rules.
Some folks have characterized what I wrote as a threat. It is not that at all. It is a completely realistic assessment. The Catholics came out, for the first time in that magnitude, because their Church committed itself POLITICALLY in an American election. The Evangelicals came out. They voted pro-life because the Republican Party made pro-life promises. And ONE DAY LATER it's all negotiable again.
It ain't gonna fly.
What you hear here is agony. Real agony of people who committed themselves with belief to a party, and see that party already, a day after the election, ready to compromise on abortion because of a mild political bind.
I do not have the power to keep anybody from the polls.
I merely report the truth: if the Republicans do not fulfill their pro-life campaign promise, they are going to discourage millions of voters who trusted them.
Arlen Specter is symbolic of the struggle between Republican Politics As Usual, and the new voters who came out to put the Republicans over the top.
Republicans are OUT OF THEIR MINDS to think that they can start backpedaling on a key point THE DAY AFTER THE ELECTION.
It's nuts.
Suppose Bush named Kerry as the new Defense Secretary? That would be the equivalent slap in the face.
Snap out of it, folks!
There's no need to get angry at each other. There's no reason to fight.
Send Arlen Specter to another job, and the issue will pass for now.
Approve the pro-life judges, and there will be no problem.
We're not fighting about this here because of what I wrote, but because of what a Republican Senator said. He caused this problem, not us. He needs to be moved aside.
Not if those new judges honored their oaths to support the Constitution.
"Due process" is a well established Constitutional right. It even applies to pregnant women, believe it or not.
Errr, no. The day after the election when we accomplished a larger Republican majority in the Senate, leftie reporters dug at Specter looking for remarks they could use to divide conservatives and moderates. The left told conservatives to jump and we began pole-vaulting.
Think about it... the only hope Senate Democrats have is to cause a bloody battle dividing our Senators. It would be very helpful if conservatives would stop carrying water for Hillary, Kerry, Kennedy, etc.