{"id":4985,"date":"2005-08-16T12:51:26","date_gmt":"2005-08-16T16:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/4985.html"},"modified":"2005-08-16T12:51:26","modified_gmt":"2005-08-16T16:51:26","slug":"big-tent-politics-on-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/big-tent-politics-on-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Big-tent politics on abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The AP had an interesting item<\/a> yesterday on a House Dem who wants to move the party away from its solidly-pro-choice background. I wonder, though, if he realizes that he’s already won.<\/p>\n

Rep. Jim Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat who opposes legalized abortion, is helping the party’s effort to broaden its base by reaching out to other abortion opponents.<\/p>\n

“I just feel that the party needs to be neutral on the subject, or at least welcoming of those who have a different view,” Oberstar said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I suspect neutrality on abortion rights is highly unlikely, but haven’t the Dems already gone to great lengths to be a big-tent party in this regard?<\/p>\n

* Dems didn’t hesitate to back Harry Reid as the party’s Senate leader last year. He’s the first Senate Dem to lead the caucus while also opposing abortion rights in the post-Roe era.<\/p>\n

* During last year’s presidential election, leading abortion-rights groups asked John Kerry to pledge a litmus test for Supreme Court nominees. He refused.<\/p>\n

* In recruiting candidates for the 2006 cycle, Dems reached out to high-profile, top-tier candidates who oppose abortion rights in Pennsylvania (Casey) and Rhode Island (Langevin).<\/p>\n

* Nearly half the Senate Dem caucus has rallied behind<\/a> the Prevention First Act, which seeks to reduce unwanted pregnancies and, therefore, lower the abortion rate.<\/p>\n

* Several Senate and House, with support of party leaders in both chambers, are working to establish an official relationship<\/a> with Democrats for Life, an anti-abortion-rights group.<\/p>\n

* DNC Chairman Howard Dean, despite strong pro-choice views, has said<\/a> in no uncertain terms, “We need to welcome pro-life Democrats into this party.”<\/p>\n

Jim Oberstar is imploring the party to be “at least welcoming of those who have a different view.” I’m wondering, what more can the Dems do?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The AP had an interesting item yesterday on a House Dem who wants to move the party away from its solidly-pro-choice background. I wonder, though, if he realizes that he’s already won. Rep. Jim Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat who opposes legalized abortion, is helping the party’s effort to broaden its base by reaching out to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}