Former President of NARAL Pro Choice America, Kate Michelman, had this to say in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer in regards to running as an Independent in the 2006 PA Senate election:
With conservatives controlling the White House and Congress, and the addition of clearly anti-choice justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito, the principles embodied in Roe and the right of every American woman to make reproductive health decisions face an uncertain future.
But with challenge comes opportunity. Rather than buckle or retreat, it is time to rally the pro-choice community and for women to control their own futures. Under similar circumstances, the pro-choice movement was critical to Democrats’ recapturing the Senate in 1990 and the presidency in 1992. The silence of many pro-choice senators regarding Alito’s confirmation and the specter of Democrats recruiting anti-choice Senate candidates at this critical time is a real concern for woman’s rights supporters.
Sounds like she’s taking a stand there, eh?.
Every fiber in my body tells me that these principles should be defended. It is difficult to imagine that the right for which so many have worked so hard can be whisked away by politicians more interested in accumulating power than standing up for a fundamental right.
Sounds like she’s really pissed off and wants to effect change.
Despite profound and fundamental differences, I have decided that Pennsylvania will be better served by electing Bob Casey to the U.S. Senate than giving his opponent another term. I do this knowing that I may forever regret not responding one more time to the clarion call of principle.
And with that, Kate Michelman is a backstabber in my eyes and I presume that many other people who feel that the issue of choice is an incredibly important one will feel similarly.
I was an apathetic schlep for the first twenty years of my life and slowly my eyes opened after the 2000 5 to 4 vote to hand George W. Bush the presidency and since the 2004 election I’ve been mad as fucking hell about it. I’m tired of not responding to the “clarion call of principle” that Michelman speaks of. I’ve only been a Democrat for six years now, but I’ve been a “good Dem” and followed the pack. But the Democratic party has veered to the Right and I don’t like how things are looking down the line. I don’t like how the “clarion call of principle” is being ignored by the Democratic leadership and treated as an annoying cacophony of cries from a bunch of loonies outside of the mainstream. They are wrong, we are the base and they are losing more of us each and every day.
Choosing to endorse an anti-choice [among other things] candidate instead of an incredible Progressive Democrat in Chuck Pennacchio makes Kate Michelman a backstabber. It has been six days since the candidates filed to be on the primary ballot. [And just to be clear, I am a hard working volunteer on the Pennacchio campaign, but I was saying this after I had heard him speak and before I started to actively volunteer my time on his campaign]
Supporting a candidate who believes this:
It would seem obvious: Democratic Senate candidate Robert P. Casey Jr., who opposes abortion, believes Roe v. Wade should be overturned.
“You can’t say you have the position I have and not believe that,” Casey said in a recent interview about the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that made legal abortions available nationwide.
makes Kate Michelman a backstabber.
Casey apologists will see Michelman’s decision to 1) not run as an Independent and shove the issue of choice onto the top of the 2006 PA Senate election and 2) not endorse one of the two pro choice Democratic candidates [the other being Alan Sandals] as a dose of pragmatism. I simply call it selling out. And when you sell out your base as a former President of a national organization, that makes you a backstabber.
I’m not much of a single-issue voter. I despise Democrats like Casey for a host of reasons including his stance on the Iraq War, embryonic stem cell research, his lack of support for a living wage and universal healthcare, his stance on forcing pharmacists to not fill prescriptions based on their private beliefs, his soft stance on equal rights for all… But Michelman was the president of a huuuge single-issue voting bloc. And she just sold them out. Big time. That makes her a backstabber. I know that she fought hard for nearly thirty years on the national level, but today, she stopped fighting. Most of her activities were before my time and I’m sure many here in this community witnessed it and were a part of it firsthand. I’m curious to hear your reactions to her change of heart.
im of a mind that you’re confusing a statement of political reality made in passing, with an offical endorsement.
i don’t see her statement as an endorsement at all. i would support her long distance if she ran.
i see that as nothing other than an endorsement. not a ringing endorsement, but an endorsement.
Maybe I’m missing out on some context here, but on the face of it Michelman is much worse than a mere backstabber — she’s either terminally stupid or bought. There was absolutely no reason to try and cut the two prochoice Dems off at the knees in favor of a candidate who makes no secret of his antiabortion fervor. Assuming she’s neither stupid or nuts, Michelman’s statement makes no sense at all — Did Casey promise her a good job? Money? What?
If she doesn’t want to come out with an endorsement of a prochoice candidate at this point, fine. She could just shut the fuck up for a change. But that wouldn’t be the NARAL way. For some years now I’ve found it takes more and more effort to actively support abortion rights in light of NARAL’s unblemished record of failure and betrayal. Michelman’s sabotage helps me understand how that happened. With friends like her, women don’t need enemies.
Either she should have kept her mouth shut until after the primary, or said something like “Those who are in favor of a woman’s right to choose should consider their choices on the ballot carefully.” (Or something similar.)
Coming out now and speaking for Casey makes me wonder as well…although I’m wondering if it was more of a threat than a promise…
It is time to rally the pro-choice community, around new leadership. Michelman has failed us miserably, and this is a clear example of how eskew her priorities are. I really don’t see much difference between Santorum and Casey.
You can’t be serious.
Santorum is a religious fanatic. He has lied repeatedly about selling the people of the US to the special interests. He has stolen hundreds of thousands from his home town school system by home schooling his children in another state.
No difference?
Truly, Sir, you are a fool.
Well, let’s see — Santorum voted for Alito. Casey said he would if he could.
Santorum is anti choice. So is Casey.
Santorum is anti gay. So is Casey.
Santorum is against universal health care. So is Casey.
That’s just for starters.
And I guess blindly following the Pope’s most obnoxious political stupidities while ignoring the inconvenient ones is somehow different than being a religious fanatic?
If you’re going to cast the Fool stone, you might want to be more careful about where it’s likely to land.
Casey will be part of a Democratic majority and a Democratic majority will give us all lovely things.
Except, of course, for the 17 Democrats in the Senate who voted against filibustering Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court…
Except, of course, for the 73 Democrats in the House who voted for the “screw the middle class bankruptcy” bill, which provoked Molly Ivins to declare, “If Democrats won’t stand up for working people, then to hell with them.”
A Democratic majority in the House and/or the Senate doesn’t automatically equate to support for progressive social or economic policies.
The pro-corporate profits, anti-labor union NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement, negotiated by the first President Bush) was passed by a Democratically-controlled House and Senate and signed into law by a Democratic president (Clinton).
I could go on, but it’s depressing. Now do shut up and go pull the lever marked “Democratic” (or the touchscreen button) and hope that the votes are being counted correctly. And STOP ASKING QUESTIONS AND THINKING FOR YOURSELF. You’ve already been TOLD what to think and how to vote. Yeesh.
Right on the money.
Conservative Democrats are not going to get elected and then suddenly develop a liberal voting record. Getting reelected comes first, and voting against the interests of the conservatives who elected them is not going to help them.
This bullshit notion that we can advanced progressive causes by electing conservatives needs to disappear. Conservative Democrats are not going to vote as a bloc with liberal Democrats. The conservative Dems we have already do not vote as a bloc with the rest of the party. The “pragmatists” can turn blue in the face sputtering, “If we don’t have a majority, we can’t influence policy,” but the simple fact is that the pragmatist approach isn’t going to give us a majority. It’s just going to maintain the conservative majority by giving them control of a bigger chunk of the Democratic party, and all we’ll get out of the bargain is “bipartisan” conservatism.
I am so sick of listening to the “pragmatic” crowd tell me that pixies make the flowers grow. They’ve become completely out of touch with reality.
But how can that be? They’re “reality-based”!
Sure they are. They’re so reality-based that they’ve given up on changing reality. They just want to change the window dressing and insist that the view is different.
I’m not saying Santorum isn’t horrible, he’s one of the worst crooks and hypocrites the Republicans have. What I am saying is that Casey looks an awful lot like our version of a nepotistic crook and hypocrite to me, lacking only the opportunity to feed at the trough that Santorum has been afforded for the last half-decade. Your mileage clearly varies.
Hello!!!!!!!!– Casey does not, I REPEAT -DOES NOT WANT A WOMEN TO HAVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE HER OWN CHOICE WITH RESPECT TO HER BODY!
AND WATCH THE DEMS SCURRY FOR COVER. THE EXCUSES WILL COME SO FAST THAT THEY WILL MAKE ONES HEAD SPIN!
Just one more example of the dems skillfully wresting defeat from the jaws of success.
billjpa
She is upset enough with Casey that she was considering a protest run against him in the General election, but she did the electoral math and realised that she could potentially pull a Nader and give Senator Shit Stain another six years to represent Pennsylvania.
If we can get a Majority in the Senate then we would control the Agenda, Casey wouldn’t even get a chance to vote for nasty pieces of work like Alito. If Santorum wins his election, he stands a good chance of becoming majority leader, or at least Whip.
I’m still new to the state, but I don’t think that outside of Philly and Pittsburgh, PA is ready to elect a liberal to the Senate. When was the last time we elected a Democratic Senator to a full term?
Poll numbers and general on-the-ground feel says otherwise.
show Pennachio with about as much of a political presence as the tooth fairy- to my deep regret I might add, but he just hasn’t run a campaign that has done anything other than raise his profile among progressive activists- nada, zip, zilch.
Vote for who you want in the primary- I’ll be following my principles- but Pennachio wont win and taking the seat for Casey in Nov. is a darn good way of blocking the agendas of both Santorum and Casey.
Killing your moderate allies in the hope of making greater gains later has never paid off and usually has the opposite of the desired effect in the long term. I mean the German Communists of the 1920’s and early 30’s sure did well by sabotaging the Social Democrats, and Perot really moved the GOP toward fiscal moderation.
Oh? How about the poll numbers that show Pennacchio beating Casey by a considerable margin once voters are informed of Casey’s stances on issues? Casey’s entire campaign relies on him not being noticed or standing up for anything, and getting votes just because he’s not Santorum.
Kerry tried that. He wound up taking a slam-dunk election and making it so close that the Republicans could steal it again. Oops.
the voters about their respective stands on the issues? Because if he was any good at that, the real polls would reflect the push polls, wouldn’t they.
“Pull a Nader” – why don’t you call out the Dem establishment for putting up another shitty candidate with a shitty campaign? Nader got the votes he did because voters voted with their conscience and not simply as their “leadership” told them to.
If we elect another DINO, a completely open DINO, it only encourages the “leadership” to run more right of center candidates instead of Progressives.
I think you’re too new to the state. Don’t believe that bullshit Carville spewed during Casey Sr’s campaign. It’s not true. Pennacchio has been to almost 300 campaign stops since the 2004 election all over PA, tons in the middle of the state with warm receptions everywhere he’s been. People just waiting for a true Progressive to show up. You want to know the last time we elected a Democrat Senator to a full term? It was 15 election cycles ago when Joseph Clark was Senator from 1957 – 1969. He was a liberal. Since then, it’s been a run of people the leadership thought was electable. Remember how electability works?
There is a difference between electability and being able to represent your state. The reason that Santorum is so odious (well besides his being an asshat and all) is because he represents a moderate state and does not consider the views of many of his constituents. Likewise much of the damage that Bush has done to our country is because he has only chosen to govern for the gang that voted for him, despite razor thin elections (and not even a majority the first time around).
If we want to heal our country and not just continue on the Rove/ Norquest path of dividing it in the continued wake of the New Deal and Civil Rights then we have to be willing to form a government which will represent as much of the country as possible. I am not talking about being able to elect people, but for those who have been elected to govern the country.
True I disagree with Casey on a number of issues most importantly Choice, but he is several Fuckloads better than Santorum. When he was persuaded to run it looked like he was the only Dem who could beat Santorum. Now that so many Republican Fuck ups and Cover ups have come to light, the DSCC probably could have afforded to back a more liberal Dem.
For now Pennachio looks like a protest candidate, I would love to see him a good strong race. I would love to see him an our Senator, but for now I wouldn’t expect someone like Michelman to take him seriously.
PS Forty years is a long time and the political landscape has changed considerably
PPS See you at Tangiers
what would her have running accomplished? it was late in the game when she even started toying with the idea and she probably realized she’d have a massive uphill climb.
thankfully, she also realized that splitting the left to re-elect santorum is the worst thing that could happen to pro-choice interests.
sometimes, you gotta lose a few battles to win the war, man.
the issue is the Casey endorsement. Last week Casey was so odious she was willing to run and hand the seat to Dogboy. Today she endorses him?
won a right or preserved one by agreeing to give it up?
Has anyone in the history of the world achieved a goal by supporting someone who vehemently opposed it?
Has anyone in the history of the world fostered progress for human kind by sending huge amounts of money to support tyranny?
Has anyone who tells you to be quiet and vote for a candidate who represents everything you loathe got anything personally to lose? Will they actually suffer when he votes your rights away.
Is there a word for someone who has taken money for years with the promise to go to the wall for your rights, and who now slinks away quietly when the going gets tough? Absolutely. But being a lady, I’m far too polite to say it.
For all those who are equating Santorum and Casey:
If the election comes down to those two, who will you vote for?