{"id":6801,"date":"2006-03-08T11:12:33","date_gmt":"2006-03-08T16:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6801"},"modified":"2006-03-08T11:12:33","modified_gmt":"2006-03-08T16:12:33","slug":"the-culture-of-life-runs-into-the-culture-of-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-culture-of-life-runs-into-the-culture-of-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘culture of life’ runs into the ‘culture of politics’"},"content":{"rendered":"

About a week ago, when South Dakota’s sweeping new ban on abortion was working its way through the state legislature, a reporter asked Scott McClellan<\/a> for the White House reaction to the effort. McClellan dodged, saying only that Bush “believes we ought to be working to build a culture of life in America.”<\/p>\n

Now that the bill has been signed, and the controversy has generated national attention, the White House press corps returned to the subject<\/a> again yesterday. For some reason, McClellan seemed a little shy about the whole thing.<\/p>\n

McClellan: The state law, as you know, bans abortions in all instances with the exception of the life of the mother.<\/p>\n

Q: And not rape and incest. And so, therefore, he must disagree with it, doesn’t he? Doesn’t he, Scott?<\/p>\n

McClellan: The president has a strong record of working to build a culture of life, and that’s what he will continue to do.<\/p>\n

Q: I know, but you’re not answering my question. You’re dodging it.<\/p>\n

McClellan: No, I’m telling you that it’s a state law.<\/p>\n

Q: Is he opposed to abortion laws that forbid it for rape and incest; isn’t that true, Scott? That’s what you said.<\/p>\n

McClellan: Let me respond. Look at the president’s record when it comes to defending the sanctity of life. It is a very strong record.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As dodges go, this one is at least coherent. McClellan would love to talk about the South Dakota measure, but he doesn’t talk about state laws. Except, as Nico discovered<\/a>, McClellan is<\/i> willing to comment on state laws, but only when it’s politically convenient for him to do so.<\/p>\n

The South Dakota abortion ban offers the White House an opportunity to state the president’s position clearly. McClellan wants no part of this opportunity. It’s a subtle admission that the S.D. law is a bigger political problem for the GOP than the party is generally willing to admit.
\n
\nIn fact, in the case of yesterday’s briefing, the context is even more important. The question wasn’t coming from a neutral reporter; the exchange came by way of Les Kinsolving, an embarrassingly right-wing radio host in Baltimore, who, just a day before, asked McClellan if Bush watched “any of the Academy Awards for prostitution and sodomy<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

I mention this because Kinsolving, like most far-right Bush supporters, wants to hear the White House express its support for the South Dakota abortion ban. Bush opposes abortion rights? He wants a “culture of life”? Well, here’s his chance to say so.<\/p>\n

Except he won’t. Groups like Focus on the Family are hailing<\/a> the South Dakota law as an important political milestone, but their ally in the White House doesn’t want to talk about it. Note to James Dobson: why don’t you urge the president to take a firm stand on one side or the other?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About a week ago, when South Dakota’s sweeping new ban on abortion was working its way through the state legislature, a reporter asked Scott McClellan for the White House reaction to the effort. McClellan dodged, saying only that Bush “believes we ought to be working to build a culture of life in America.” Now that […]<\/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-6801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6801","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=6801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}