Falwell’s Chattel

Negotiators Add Abortion Clause to Spending Bill

“It’s something we’ve had a longstanding interest in,” said Douglas Johnson, a spokesman for the National Right to Life Committee. He added, “This is in response to an orchestrated campaign by pro-abortion groups across the country to use government agencies to coerce health care providers to participate in abortions.”

This clause sounds like something the GOP would tell us Real Americans would all be thrilled with. So, why are negotiators tucking it in a spending bill in the dead of night? Why not pass it separately and bask in the glow of Real American approval?

This bill, of course, is going to pass. But, an opposition party might vote against it en masse in order to bring the issue to the attention of the American people. “They are hiding anti-choice legislation in spending bills at the last minute in order to secretly enact their radical agenda.”

I’m sure Joe Lieberman will use this as an excuse to show that he is bi-partisan. Reid should corral everyone else to hang tough. Every other word coming out of Democrats’ mouths should be “extremist”, “radical”, “secretive” and the like as Kerry did yesterday in his video.

Regardless of the merits of “moving to the middle” on abortion, this particular action should be opposed by Democrats because of the way in which it was done. They should raise holy hell that these contentious issues are being slipped in under the radar without debate. You want to frame these things in the public’s mind as something the Republicans are ashamed of or afraid of and force them to explain why they are not.

This should be done over and over again so that Americans get the message that these guys are trying to hide their radical agenda. This serves to wake up the somnambulent middle who didn’t vote for extremism and piss off the social conservatives who are itching to take credit.

And speaking of this, I want to take a moment to commend Josh Marshall for his “Shays handful” work. It’s very important that Republicans be forced to account for their cowardice. If Josh hadn’t done this, I’m not sure that we would have these wimps on record. As it is, challengers throughout the country now have a potent weapon if the Democrats can get it up to make use of it.