April 19, 2007

4/19: All About Priorities

The contrast between the intensity of netroots reaction to the VA Tech tragedy and 4/18's SCOTUS upholding of the partial-birth abortion ban could not be more stark. Following the shootings, there were some token calls for a 'revist' of our nation's gun laws on some sites, but for the most part bloggers devoted their attention to attackingotherbloggers . After the SCOTUS ruling, however, the netroots kicked into activist-high-gear with marches, calls to pressure WH '08ers on the issue, and increased pressure on Dem-allied interest groups that have not been carrying their weight (NARAL). Still yet to be seen on either issue though: calls for the Dem majorities in Congress to take legislative action. That focus is still on Iraq.

SCOTUS: The End Of Roe

The 4/18 SCOTUS ruling upholding the partial-birth abortion ban prompted mostly fervent denunciations from the left and triumphalism on the right. First, the more representative reactions from the left include:

• Daily Kos' mcjoan: "This decision throws basic abortion rights into question, which in turn brings the right to choose to the forefront of 2008, when Democrats again are going to have to make supporting the right to choose a litmus test, and where we're going to have to fight hard in the primaries for truly progressive candidates who will make protecting the right to make our own medical decisions paramount."
• TAPPED's Ezra Klein: "The Court's decision to uphold the "Partial-Birth" Abortion ban without forcing it to offer exceptions for maternal health is dangerous, both medically and legally. Legally because it opens the door to all sorts of small-bore regulations and restrictions that will, over time, convert abortions into a privilege mainly offered to the white and well-off. ... this decision will mean the effective, if not actual, end of Roe.
• Jack Balkin: "The second point worth noting is that Justice Kennedy invokes what has become the new rhetoric of abortion opponents-- the notion that women often regret abortions and that they are deceived by doctors into having them. ... Elements of this new anti-abortion rhetoric appear in Justice Kennedy's argument that because of a mother's natural bond of love for her child, some women would not have abortions if they knew about the intact D&E process. Therefore Congress may ban the procedure entirely."
• Lawyers, Guns, and Money's Scott Lemieux: "The result of this type of case is a sharp restriction in the reproductive freedom of women without the political benefits of an outright reversal. ... The next time someone claims that overturning Roe would "send the issue back to the states," make sure to point out that they don't have any idea what the hell they're talking about."
• Christy Hardin Smith at firedoglake: "There is a reason that Jane and I went to the mat time and time again with regard to both the Roberts and Alito confirmations. ... Because women and their families, who are faced with the horrific, personal, and difficult decisions that this family had to face, should not have to deal with people on the outside of their lives deciding what is best for their moral welfare, with no context whatsoever of the individual details."
• Calitics: "This is a VERY FRIGHTENING DEVELOPMENT which throws women's rights into complete limbo."
• Daily Kos' Adam B: "Chip, chip, chipping away at Casey's "undue burden" test until a woman's right to control her reproductive decisions fundamentally disappears. This is not the last restriction which Republicans will try to pass -- and remember -- the Supreme Court was able to render this decision because the Senate (with Leahy, Byrd and Reid) and House (with 60+ Dems voting in favor) passed this bill. Want to overturn this legislation and prevent worse from coming in the future? Elect better legislators."

SCOTUS II: Victory Laps

Typical reactions from the right include:

• The Right Angle's Elizabeth Kantor: "Thank God. And thank President Bush.
• Right Wing News: "So, let me be the first to say thank you, George Bush, for Samuel Alito. Granted, we conservatives did have to savagely attack him to stop him from putting his flunky Harriet Miers on the Supreme Court, but in the end, he did the right thing. And on days like today, when Alito played a key role, you get to see why the big fight to get rid of Miers and get Alito through Congress was worth the effort."
• Townhall's Matt Lewis: "It's fair for the conservative movement deserves a lot of credit for today's Supreme Court decision to uphold the ban on partial birth abortion. We worked to elect a president who would make good Supreme Court picks -- and he did. ... I've been saying for a long time now, that conservative bloggers and activists deserve credit for our current Supreme Court.
• NRO's Ed Whelan: "On initial read, this opinion strikes me as a significant victory. In particular, it appears that the Court is disinclined to continue to have special ad hoc rules that uniquely favor those who challenge abortion regulations."
• Captain's Quarters: "Today's ruling is a victory for moderation and common sense. It will not presage any movement for this court."
• The Corner's Yuval Levin after noting Maj. Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) criticized the decision: "So he wishes O'Connor could have still been there to overturn the law he supported?"

SCOTUS III: Not The End Of Roe

Small minorities on the left, and larger contingents on the right, argued (for widely varying reasons) the decision really doesn't change that much. From the right:

• Townhall's Hugh Hewitt: "The good news is that an abhorrent procedure is outlawed. The bad news is that Casey remains good law, and its holding remains elusive. Would a state statute prohibiting post-viability abortions except when the life of the mother was in danger be upheld? Perhaps.
• The Right Angle's Nathanael Blake: "While I'm glad that the court ruled against the plaintiffs (some abortionists and Planned Parenthood), this decision changes very little about abortion in America. It stays within the framework set by the Casey decision, and the ban is narrow and contains exceptions. Abortionists can still kill late-term babies, they just can't do it using this method."
• Ross Douthat subbing for Andrew Sullivan: "it's great to have a victory, any victory, but in the grand scheme of the abortion debate, the pro-choice side is still beating us about forty (or maybe forty million) to one.
• NRO's Mark Levin: "I don't understand what all the fuss is about. The fact is that Anthony Kennedy makes clear that he is open to a case where the litigant asserts a health exception to partial-birth abortion. He makes this clear in several ways, including distinguishing between a "facial" vs. "as-applied" challenge, and all but invites such a challenge. That is, he is soliciting a health-exception challenge."
• RedState's Dan McLaughlin: "Careful readers will note what makes only passing appearances, if that, in Justice Kennedy's opinion: the Constitution. ... The ban is not out of the woods, even aside from the opening left for as-applied challenges."

From the left:

• TPM Cafe's Ed Kilgore: "Clearly the replacement of O'Conner by Alito made this result possible. But the failure of Alito and Roberts to join the concurring opinion by Thomas and Scalia calling for a reversal of all these precedents means that a further change in the Court will probably be necessary to produce a more fundamental shift in the constitutional law of abortion rights."
• The Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum: "There's a sense in which this is more symbolic than anything else, since IDX is infrequently used and there are almost always alternate procedures available. But it's not entirely symbolic, and in any case, symbols matter. ... The majority opinion really referred to obstetricians as "abortion doctors" throughout? Apparently so. Wow."

SCOTUS IV: Accountability Time

4/18's SCOTUS abortion decision is serving as a flash point for ongoing netroots criticism of national pro-choice groups with NARAL coming in for the heaviest criticism. Jane Hamsher of firedoglake penned the most widely linked to assault in NARAL pres. Nancy Keenan including:

• I'm sure Nancy Keenan is licking her sweet chops over the latest SCOTUS decision. It is, after all, probably going to be the biggest fundraising opportunity she's had during her tenure at NARAL. Bigger even than Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement.
• And what did they do with all that cash? They sat it and didn't do a damn thing, didn't lift a finger to fight Samuel Alito. Worse yet, when the Gang of 14 decided to vote in favor of cloture, they said that they did not consider cloture votes "significant" and would not be considering them in their scorecard.
• Don't reward failure. Tell your friends. Don't give money to NARAL when they come knocking on your door to tell you that choice is going down the crapper unless you give them a lot of money, because what you'll be giving money for is Nancy Keenan's ability to point her little pinky over tea at Washington cocktail parties and tut-tut over the state of choice in this country at the hands of the fundamentalists

Also attacking NARAL:

• Howie Klein at firedoglake: "NARAL is an insider political clique that has lost its way. There are state offices, like the one in New York, that are fine and effective organizations. The national Inside the Beltway NARAL is not one of us. It's one of them."
• Daily Kos' Turkana: "You had a single mission, and you failed. When the time came for the most important battle to be fought, you backed down. You walked away. You pretended to have taken a stand, but you hadn't. You failed. I won't be attending the event to which I've been invited. I won't be giving you any more money."

MyDD's Matt Stoller isn't thrilled that the Alliance for Justice's press area is still under construction: "Some people think that this ruling will be a rallying cry for the pro-choice groups to organize around. I don't think so. You're either a fighter or you're not. The people that lead these groups aren't fighters."

Atrios also posts a list of "Sitting Democratic Senators who voted for the 'we don't care about women's health' Bill."

GOP FIELD: Wade-ing In On The Issue

The Corner's Byron York grades the major '08er reactions to 4/18's SCOTUS ruling: "McCain's statement laid it on pretty thick, Romney's was concise but strongly worded, and Giuliani's was just concise. Terse, actually. And the question, not from a substance point of view but in terms of simple political style, is: Why couldn't Giuliani have gone about it just a bit more? Put a few words of emphasis in there to stress that he felt strongly about it? If you're going to agree with a decision and endorse it, why not really do it? Gilding his statement a bit, one GOP strategist told me today, would have been "a layup" for Giuliani. Yet he didn't do it."

Fellow CorneriteKathryn Jean Lopez also was tough on Giuliani: "Byron I had two opposing reactions on his under whelming statement: 1) What a missed opportunity for him. 2) Smart of him not to say anything more, he's liable to have screwed it up. "

GINGRICH: 'Cause GOPers Love Protecting The Environment By Further Complicating The Tax Code

Newt Gingrich took to RedState to promote his EcoVision 2007 webcast at American Solutions. Gingrich stressed "the need to develop a green conservatism" and laid out principles for GC including: "Green conservatism believes that we can realize more positive environmental outcomes faster by shifting tax code incentives and shifting market behavior than is possible from litigation and regulation."

MCCAIN: It's True, He's Good At Angering People

Captain's Quarters gives a positive review to John McCain's pro-2nd Amdt. message following the Virginia Tech tragedy: "From the AP report, it doesn't look like McCain used the shootings to make his point until challenged by an audience member ... It does show that McCain has decided to do what he does best: become controversial. McCain never seems as much in his element than when he's angering people by surprising them with a policy position. ... I get the sense that McCain, with his defense of the Iraq war and now of gun rights, has decided to become more himself on the campaign trail. It may not win him enough support to get the nomination, but it will make for a more interesting ride."

While not mentioning his client, Ankle Biting Pundits contributor and McCain aide Patrick Hynes asks fellow conservatives not to "rip [his] head off just for posting the facts" and links to USA Today polling showing 78% of Americans feel that "people now in the country illegally should be given a chance at citizenship." Hynes comments: "Is it possible, just possible that my "enforcement only" friends are deeply, deeply out-of-touch with America on this issue? I mean, honestly: they are on the business end of an 80-20 issue. They might as well support expurgating "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance."

Race 4 '08s HeavyM is still hitting McCain hard for his "choice to skip the county conventions in South Carolina." HM links to a an APstory reporting that former McCain backer Saluda County Sheriff Jason Booth recently "jumped" to Mitt Romney's campaign. HM comments: " McCain's South Carolina organization is in danger right now, and by the time he makes it down there to re-kick off his campaign at the end of this month, he will have missed at least 20 more county conventions and straw polls.

ROMNEY: Early Yard Signs Can Only Lead To One Thing ... Early Yard Sign Stealing!

SC's Daily Chaser was shocked/impressed to find two Mitt Romney yard signs up "on the corner of Huger and Gervais in Columbia" and "6 more locations in downtown." DC adds: "This is a long time out to be starting the sign war. Let us know if you have seen any around your neck of the woods.

THOMPSON: We're NotThe OnlyOnes Who Had 53 Ya' Know

RedState's Erick Erickson corrects Hotline counting skills, claiming 63, and not the Hotline reported 53, House members met with Fred Thompson 4/18. Erickson adds: "And while not all of those 63 came away convinced that Fred is their guy, all of them came away convinced he could be President and that he is in the race. Some were ready then and there to put money on the table or help raise money. On social issues, Senator Thompson proved himself to be solid. On fiscal issues, ditto."

Also, Thompson recently won RedState's WH straw poll with 35% of the nearly 5K votes cast (Mitt Romney came in 2nd with 12%, Duncan Hunter had 10% and Rudy Giuliani had 9%).

DEM FIELD: Fuzzy Math

MyDD'sChris Bowers reacts to a Washington Post story on their poll with ABC that shows Giuliani's lead narrowing and Clinton keeping her lead. But Bowers criticizes the poll for just measuring self-identifying and leaning Dems/GOPers, adding that the word "primary" doesn't appear in the story. He summarizes: "The problem I have is that even though these polls and these articles never actually state they are measuring the Democratic or Republican primary caucus electorate, there is a consistent implication that that is exactly what these polls are doing."

CLINTON: Is The Extreme Makeover Edition Not Going As Planned?

The Plank'sMichael Crowley looks at a new Gallup poll showing Clinton's favorability ratings near an all-time low. Crowley said that he's always assumed if Clinton could re-introduce herself as a "hard-working, wonky moderate who is independent of husband, her appeal will rise to elecatability levels. But if the initial response to Hillary's candidacy has been a rising dislike, well, there's trouble a-comin', I'd say. This may even bode even more ominously for her than Obama's dazzling fundraising."

RICHARDSON: A Blast From The Past

MyDD's Matt Stoller blogs that he's been going through the '90-'94 NAFTA debates "and almost no one in politics comes out well." Stoller would like to remind his readers that this also includes ex-Pres. Clinton and Bill Richardson, "who actually pioneer some of the K-Street whipping tactics Tom Delay later used in the House."

OBAMA: Open The Gates And Issue A Press Release

TPM'sGreg Sargent notes that Barack Obama picked up on Def. Sec. Robert Gates statement "in a smart way -- suggesting that even Gates understands the value of the Dem Congress' efforts to impose withdrawal deadlines on the war." As Kevin Drum, Think Progress and others have noted this morning, Gates was quoted in 4/18's's Washington Post saying that Congress' calls for withdrawal deadlines were helping exert pressure the Iraqi government.

Sargent commends Obama for putting out this statement on the issue: "President Bush has had a long history of ignoring the advice of his commanders on the ground, but let's hope that he follows the advice of his Defense Secretary so that we can finally begin the process of ending the war in Iraq in a responsible way."

IRAQ: Is There A Draft In Here?

The netroots are not happy with WaPo reports that Dems may be "moving" to make their Iraq timetable for "advisory." MyDD's Matt Stoller beseeches, "Please Stop Trying to Sell Us Out on Iraq" and writes: "Progressive activists hate it when Democrats talk to the Washington Post about weakening the Iraq bill. It is not ok to keep floating the idea that weakening the bill makes sense. It is not ok to play around with the loyalty of the antiwar progressives who backed you.

Fellow MyDDer Chris Bowers eases his frustration at the news by calculating coalition fatalities per day grouped by [Tom] Friedman unit (half a year). Bowers adds: "Maybe I just wanted to show that the equivalent of Virginia Tech happens to American soldiers more than once every two weeks in Iraq (and several times a day to Iraqi civilians). ... Maybe I just wanted to mock Tom Friedman, and the idea of "progress" in Iraq. ... Maybe sometimes, with congressional Democrats telling the Washington Post they will cave on a binding timeline and Democratic presidential candidates claiming they will withdraw but their policies indicating otherwise, I just feel helpless when it comes to the Iraq war, and didn't know what else to do."

At The Huffington Post, Rep. John Murtha reports on his recent trip to Ft. Hood, Ft. Stewart and Ft. Bragg, including: "What I found was that the president's policy has forced the military to break its own rotation and deployment guidelines. ... As one soldier put it, "after six months in Iraq, every day is another Groundhog Day." ... The president asks the impossible and the burden continues to fall on the very few. The pressure must be taken off the current force and their families who have already sacrificed so much. If the president insists on continuing the current operational tempo and policy, then he should call for a military draft. That is the responsible thing to do."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Joe Lieberman's Worst Nightmare!

Instapundit posts his theory on why American teens "are doing better than they've done in decades" including "Teen pregnancy is down, along with teen crime, drug use, and many other social ills." TCS Daily. Glenn Reynolds blames "porn and videogames" for "making American teens healthier." From Reynolds:

It should have been obvious. After all, one of the great changes in teenagers' social environments over the past decade or so has been far greater exposure to explicit pornography, via the Internet, and violence, via videogames. Where twenty or thirty years ago teenagers had to go to some effort to see pictures of people having sex, now those things are as close as a Google query. (In fact, on the Internet it takes some small effort to avoid such pictures.) Meanwhile videogames have gotten more violent, with efforts to limit their content failing on First Amendment grounds.

But -- despite continued warnings from concerned mothers' groups -- teenagers are less violent, and they're having less sex, notwithstanding the predictions of many concerned people that such exposure would have the opposite effect. More virtual sex and violence would seem to go along with less real sex and violence.
The solution is thus obvious -- we need a massive government program to ensure that no American teenager goes without porn and videogames Let no child be left behind!

LEST WE FORGET: But Would Arenas Settle For "The Black VP"

Deadspin points us to Mothering Hut which is selling Obama/Arenas '08 t-shirts. Apparently, Washington Wizards superstar Gilbert Arenas already dubs himself "The Black President" and Mothering Hut has saved Obama/Arenas '08 from bothering to come up with their own platform:

• Legislate the No Snub Left Behind Act.
• Promote universal health care.
• Pardon Chico DeBarge
• Pursue alternative energies incentives: offer bacon grease subsidies.
• Offer comprehensive immigration reform: illegal immigrants can fast-track their citizenship by defeating Homeland Security Czar DeShawn Stevenson in a 3-point shooting competition, an initiative that will be dubbed: "I Want To Feel The Face of Freedom."
• Redecorate the Oval Office as an exact replica of the Lt. Castillo office set from Miami Vice.
• Annex Wheaton Plaza. Crush the resistance movement by cutting off edible underpants supply to Spencer Gifts.

Posted by Conn Carroll at April 19, 2007 12:30 PM