Speculation is growing the John McCain is considering pro-choice Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison for VP. Listen to me carefully Senator, Don’t … You … Do … It! Don’t even think about it!
First, she has been an advocate for embryonic stem cell research and has voted for it numerous times. I know that McCain is not great in this are either. The bottom line is that KBH is pro-choice.
But Patrick, a look at the NRLC voting record analysis shows her at 75%, not all that different than McCain. True. But that voting record may not tell the whole picture. The Republican Coalition For Life has this to say about Senator Hutchison:
Issue-specific organizations often publish voting records or scorecards indicating how Members of Congress vote on legislation related to their particular cause. In the case of life issues, voting records can be misleading when you are trying to find out how a legislator really stands.
A case in point: “Hutchison’s allies note that of 37 ‘key votes’ listed by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) the senator voted against the group’s recommendations only once since 1997 — on a resolution affirming support of the court decision [Roe v. Wade] that legalized abortion.” (Ft. Worth Star Telegram, 12/19/04)
The truth of the matter is, Senator Hutchison is on record as supporting legal abortion until viability.
She has said she wants the pro-life plank removed from the Republican National Platform. She serves on the Honorary Advisory Board of The WISH List, a political action committee that raises money for Republican female congressional candidates who are pro-abortion-choice, from which she received $34,500 in her first Senate race.
Senator Hutchison is not pro-life, but if you rely solely on her voting record as presented by NRLC or others who track congressional votes, you would never know that.
The contradiction between her NRLC voting record and her true pro-abortion position is due to that fact that the pro-life legislation Senator Hutchison has voted on has been regulatory or restrictive in nature, only limiting to some extent the degree to which abortions may be performed or funded. Those votes do not reveal her true pro-abortion position because there have been no recorded votes in Congress on the fundamental question of legal protection of innocent human life from conception. Until we have such a vote, which would uncover politicians who want to appear to be “pro-life” but in reality support legal abortion, pro-life voters should avoid basing their support for candidates on voting records alone.
Bottom line, her votes to affirm Roe v. Wade and her comments about removing the pro-life plank disqualify her in my mind as a suitable VP pick. We need someone on the ticket who is dyed in the wool pro-life. Believes it. Not some wishy-washy pol who you think you can get by the pro-lifers and who might appeal to a wider audience because she is a woman.
So Senator McCain, like I said, don’t even think about it. If you screw this up by trying to be too clever, the pro-lifers will sit home. Believe it, and without them you lose. Period.
You want a woman on the ticket, choose Sara Palin. Leave KBH in Texas.
August 28, 2008 at 6:08 am
Damn.
This I didn’t know. Can’t keep up on everything.
I thought KBH (all things being Catholic in orbit) would’ve sealed his election.
Now with Bill’s roadshow, as managed by the “Nointy nointy One” giving him some impetus, Mac’s choices are narrowing to the Biden level. Damn.
August 28, 2008 at 7:56 am
Leave KBH in Texas? Eh. We don’t want her either. I’ve never voted for her, and have, I’m sorry to admit, taken a near-vicious satisfaction in leaving the space beside her name blank no matter how many decent Texas Republicans are on the ballot.
But eager as I am to get rid of her, we don’t want her for veep. Isn’t there some nice cabinet-level rainbow room/career killer/bureaucratic nightmare she can take over in Washington should McCain be elected, one that has nothing to do with abortion, life, or even actual humans at all (Dept. of Transportation, maybe? Kidding.)?
That way not only would we be rid of her, but some other nice Texan can replace Rick Perry the Unfortunate as Governor when the time comes; Kay’s got her eager fingernails into the potential governorship with all the tenacity of a lame Dan Rather cliche on a flickering 1980s TV set.
August 28, 2008 at 1:36 pm
What was Christie Todd Whitman’s old job? Give her that one. Oh yeah. She was the head of the EPA, and let’s face it, the head of the EPA during a Republican administration works about as much as the Maytag repairman. Hey, I want that job.
August 28, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Thank you for posting this. I know very little of KBH since I live in PA. My husband and I were talking last night that Johnny Mac will have to choose her—but now I see the flaw. I’m already skeptical of John McCain’s “pro-life” stance. This would seal the deal for me and I’d have to vote 3rd party or stay home. Ugh. I hate that.
August 28, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Hmm… Bob Barr is looking better and better.
I’m going to sit here and hope against hope for a Jindal (of course, he wouldn’t leave LA when a hurricaine is bearing down on it) or Brownback.
But I never wanted McCain to be the nominee either.
I think, given the Ayers/Kurtz blowup, all McCain has to do is keep his base happy and watch as Obama implodes.
No WONDER they thought that Rove was some sort of super-genius… their operatives are apparently working at a third grade level!
August 28, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Sara Palin? Didn’t she just have a baby or something? What about MICHAEL STEELE??? He be da man.
August 28, 2008 at 5:43 pm
“So Senator McCain, like I said, don’t even think about it. If you screw this up by trying to be too clever, the pro-lifers will sit home. Believe it, and without them you lose. Period.”
And, so doing, unfortunately guarantee at least four years of Obama appointing judicial activists to the courts. Whilst McCain is not who I would have preferred to see as a Republican nominee, the horrors of an Obama dominated judiciary are too frightening to ignore.
August 28, 2008 at 6:05 pm
I’ll be eating Pawlenty crow if it’s her.
August 28, 2008 at 7:30 pm
clever.
August 28, 2008 at 8:13 pm
I just emailed the McCain campaign and promised them money if they pick a suitable v.p. (not KBH or any other pro-abort). I don’t know if it helps, but it’s better than just sitting here and moping about it. And if people don’t have money to donate, they can still vote. They need to let the McCain people know it. Kit
August 28, 2008 at 8:24 pm
I just emailed them as well. Thanks for the idea. But I must admit I was enjoying my moping.
August 28, 2008 at 10:07 pm
It looks like John McCain will probably pick Mitt Romney. The sentiment within the party is similar to what I just read on another blog…”The funny thing is that McCain doesn’t really need Socially Conservative voters. He needs “fiscally conservative/socially tolerant” libertarian-minded voters. And the only way he can win libertarian voters over to his side is by picking a libertarian-leaning VP like Mitt Romney or Sarah Palin. Saving that, libertarians will vote en masse for Libertarian Bob Barr.”
I believe the GOP is willing to sacrifice the Social Conservatives this election. If that’s the case, I don’t trust either McCain or Romney to ensure that Pro-Life judges remain in the SCOTUS and homosexual marriage will be crammed down our throats as state after state succumbs. May God have mercy.
August 29, 2008 at 12:38 am
McCain’s VP is pro-life. It was just announced that Sam Brownback will nominate the VP at the Convention. Brownback would never be involved in this if the VP was pro-abortion.