It should hardly come as a surprise to anyone, but Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman is hosting a party event today to salute opponents of abortion. In an email to party activists over a week ago, the party wrote: “Please join Ken Mehlman … as we honor those who march for the Right to Life. We’ll also be joined by several members of Congress who have been instrumental in our party’s fight to protect the sanctity of life.”
No big surprise, right? Sounds exactly like the kind of official RNC event that keeps its base happy. Which is why I was struck by the anger coming from the handful of pro-choice Republicans left in the party.
“This crosses the line,” Ann Stone, national chair of Republicans for Choice, a political action group with about 100,000 members nationwide, said on Friday.
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Said Stone: “This is the first we ever knew about it (such an event). We would have complained sooner.”
“The Republican Party chairman is to represent all Republicans, not just those who oppose abortion,” Stone said, adding that polls show most Republicans support a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion.
Notice Stone’s choice of words: “This crosses the line.” Ann, if you’re reading, I have some bad news for you: There is no line.
Indeed, I’d sincerely love to hear Ann Stone explain exactly what line she thinks Mehlman has crossed.
It’s almost amusing, in a pathetic kind of way, to see the sliver of GOP moderates still believe they have some say in the direction and future of the Republican Party. But every time they scream that an imaginary line in the sand has been crossed, party leaders pat them on the head and ignore their concerns.
Christie Todd Whitman believes her party is dominated by “zealots,” Arnold Schwarzenegger publicly says he’d like to see the party move to the left, and the Log Cabin Republicans make all manner of complaints, but none of this means anything. This is a conservative party. It doesn’t want to change, it doesn’t care about moderates, and it doesn’t have any intention of responding to empty threats.
So Ann Stone thinks Mehlman has “crossed the line.” Does anyone in America think Mehlman cares?
During the RNC convention, there was a brief David-versus-Goliath squabble over how right-wing the party platform would be. It wasn’t much of a contest and Goliath (the party’s far-right base) treated the moderates like a small speed bump on route to getting everything it wanted. Ann Stone was alluding to lines being crossed then, too.
“Our constituents are ready to walk,” said Ann Stone, founder and chairwoman of Republicans for Choice, a political action committee with 150,000 members which has joined forces with the Log Cabin Republicans. “Our message to the president is: ‘Stay out of the bedroom.’ “
Moderates draw a line and insist the party not cross it. Naturally, the GOP ignores them. The moderates do go again, and the party ignores them again. The cycle repeats, but the moderates play along, making their contributions, and sticking the party that disdains them.
If these constituents are “ready to walk,” now’s the time. Ann Stone says the latest anti-abortion salute “crosses the line”? Great, now let’s hear what she plans to do about it.