Newsweek reports that the GOP isn’t all that thrilled with its recent “success” in getting abortion outlawed in the state of South Dakota:
Why such reticence to embrace glad tidings? After all, the abortion issue has been good to the Republican Party. It has energized Roman Catholic and evangelical grass-roots activists and allowed the GOP to paint pro-choice Democrats as cultural extremists, out of step with Main Street and the heartland. But a recent flurry of activity on abortion is making Republican politicians nervous. With states moving to restrict abortion and the Supreme Court drawing closer to the day when it might actually reverse Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision guaranteeing a woman’s right to an abortion, GOP leaders see big political risks.
They may be in the awkward position of getting more than they asked for. The South Dakota law, for instance, would allow abortions only to save the life of the mother, not in cases of rape or incest. That is further than most Americans want to go. By a roughly two-to-one margin, polls show, people want to uphold the basic abortion right enshrined in Roe v. Wade, even if they approve of some restrictions, like parental notification. “I’m pro-life, but you can’t wear the thing out,” says Clarke Reed, the legendary architect of the GOP in Mississippi. “I’m worried about it.” With reason: his own state legislature is moving in a direction similar to South Dakota’s.
Oh, so opposing abortion was just a political tactic for the GOP, a manouevre to rouse the rabble…and a tool that would be forever useful because they knew they’d never actually win it…but this is an example of when winning is losing and always losing on an issue is always winning.
The GOP really want to keep abortion legal so they can use it as a fundraising tool and a way to stir up their nutso Christofascist core supporters…but NO WAY IN HELL do they want to give those whack jobs an actual legislative victory!
So NOW is the time for Democrats to strike on this issue, right…I mean, since public sentiment is firmly behind the traditional Democratic position of keeping abortion universally legal and safe, and the Republicans are obviously out-of-touch extremists?
Nope–once again, our beloved Democratic “strategerists” are going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory AND deny women their fundmental human rights–what Washington insiders call a “twofer”.
“Republicans are going to be the ones who look like extremists,” says former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who lost his seat in 2004 after being beaten up on the abortion issue for years. That does not mean, however, that Democrats are rushing to call attention to the Republicans’ dilemma. In the upcoming midterm elections, the Democrats don’t plan to spend a dime on ads highlighting the abortion issue, according to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the savvy Chicago pol who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
That word, “savvy”? Stop using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Wait, it gets better…not only are the Democratic “strategerists” not planning on sounding the advance when the enemy have an exposed flank, but they are busy sounding the retreat!
Indeed, the Democrats are going through some soul-searching of their own over abortion.
Translation: They’re trying to figure out a graceful way to tell the women who’ve given their support more to Democrats than to Republicans that, sorry, honey, but you’re just going to have to be a second-class citizen and give up control over your body so we can win the Bubba vote .
…a prominent pro-lifer, Bob Casey, is running for the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania. The Democrats’ rising star, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, prefers to cast abortion in terms of parental responsibility. “Even as we defend this right,” he says, “it’s important for us to acknowledge the moral dimension to the choice that’s made.”
Translation: Democrats are competing to see who can win the 2008 Republican Sound-A-Like contest. They’ll win the love of those wild-eyed Christian fundies yet!
Message to Republicans from Senator Obama and Representative Emanuel and Senator-to-Be Casey: DON’T WORRY. We’ve got your backs! We’ll make sure you NEVER have to worry about being called any nasty names over the abortion issue, nor pay a political price for your foolish encouragement of the fundamentalist Christian nutjobs who didn’t realise you were just using them to grab political power.
You know, watching the Democratic “leadership” like Rahm Emanuel in action is like watching a man who is getting mugged…the robber drops the gun…and the victim politely says, “Oh, let me get that for you”, leans down, picks it up…and hands it back to the robber.
There’s a reason I don’t write fiction–because I could never, ever make up stuff as amazing as this.
Cross-Posted at The Blogging Curmudgeon
