The Right Winger with attitude — and twelve guns — is at it again over at Tom's Nap Room. He is promoting the senatorial candidacy of an anti-abortion wacko in Pennsylvania. I hadn't been paying much attention to politics in the Keystone State, but when Tom Bux supports a cause there must be something awry. There is. Rep. Pat Toomey is seeking to unseat longterm incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter. He is the poster child of the far Right Christian fundamentalists and the 'disassemble the government' lobby. Among Toomey's supporters is the leader of Focus on the Family, an anti-abortion religious group that would like to limit the roles of women in society.
Pennsylvania's four-term senator, Arlen Specter, is facing a tough challenge in next week's Republican primary. Why? Some observers says it is because his opponent, U.S. Congressman Pat Toomey, has a strong pro-life, pro-family voting history that resonates with conservatives in The Keystone State. And Specter's chance for a fifth term in Congress may have taken another hit, now that a nationally-known pro-family spokesman has publicly endorsed Toomey.
Dr. James Dobson admits he seldom endorses political candidates. But the pro-family leader says it is "imperative" that Pat Toomey, a conservative Republican who has served three terms in the U.S. House, win the primary on April 27 against Specter. Speaking on behalf of his fellow conservatives, Dobson says in a letter dated March 22, 2004, that Specter opposes "nearly everything we hold dear."
For example, Dobson — offering his endorsement solely as an individual and not as the representative of the organizations he leads — describes the 74-year-old Specter as "a one-man roadblock" to the appointment of pro-family judges to the federal bench. And the four-term senator, he says, opposes a federal amendment that would protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Toomey, on the other hand, would be "a splendid pro-family, pro-life voice" in the Senate, he says.
"[Toomey] is a man of great courage to take on a sitting senator," Dobson states in the letter, "and the defeat of Arlen Specter would send a mighty signal that the days of waffling, devious, anti-family Republicans who are liberals in disguise is finally over."
The far Right has called out the troops on Toomey's behalf. Dobson is speaking at fundraisers for him. In additon, anti-abortion crusaders have targeted their activity to cities in Pennsylvania. Among them is The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR). One of its forms of interaction is to drive trucks with graphic photos of what it claims to be aborted fetuses through neighborhoods.
This time, CBR is showcasing billboard-size images of abortions on the sides of about six trucks traveling through downtown State College and on campus, a campaign that is continuing today.
Article comments
1 - Tom
CFG’s president and founder Steve Moore has called for closing several government departments, including Education, Commerce, Labor and Agriculture. As always, CFG isn't afraid to take on Republicans who disagree with its policy goals.
Good. All those departments are huge wastes of money.
2 - Mac Diva
If people like Dobson and Toomey get their way, we will no longer live in even a flawed democracy. Instead, we will reside in a theocracy run by folks like them. I believe every thoughtful person in the country should do his or her damnedest to prevent that outcome.
Some Republicans say they are opposed to how the 'Christian Right' and other weirdos have come to dominate their party. Well, here is their opporunity to prove they are. The Club for Growth purposely targets Republican pols who do not toe its reactionary line. If 'moderate' Republicans are serious, we should be seeing more opposition to the Club and its hit list.
3 - Al Barger
Diva, you seem to have no understanding at all of any form of conservatives. You're so set on your little socialist/racialist schtick that you just don't get it.
Big distinction: James Dobson and his social conservatives versus Club for Growth. Stephen Moore doesn't give a rat's ass about the social issues. The Club for Growth exists to promote pro-economic growth policies, lower taxes and spending. This is basic, mainstream laissez-faire economics.
Thinking that we ought to cut government spending and taxes does not have anything to do with being a "theocracy."
Nor does Dobson's social conservatism. I don't buy much of it, but being opposed to abortion does not make you the Ayatollah Khomeini.
4 - Shark
"The chubby Right Winger..."
NEWS FLASH: MacDiva is prejudiced against overweight people!
She's a "SIZEIST"!
~Sizeism!
IT MUST BE STOPPED!
What's next?
Lynching the obese?!
Granted, for some, it would take a chain and a forklift...
PS: Imagine the reaction if Al or Bux had included a degrading physical description of McD in one of their tirades!
Hip
Oh
Crit?
5 - Jim Carruthers
Reminds me of Bill Hicks' gag: if you're so pro-life, why aren't you picketing cemeteries?
Also curious how right-wingers will go so far out of their way when talking about economic theories to avoid saying "liberal" that they resort to French.
6 - Al Barger
Jim, I favor extremely LIBERAL economic policies, under the classical meaning of the word. However, saying that you favor "liberal" economic policies today will make people think that you are advocating socialism- exactly the OPPOSITE of what I or the Club for Growth mean.
This is because socialists are a bunch of friggin' thieves. The first thing the pinkos stole was the good name of "liberalism." I'll credit that heist to FDR.
"Laissez faire" makes a good term because it is more clear, and nearly impossible to hijack. The basic story of the term can't be readily twisted into some cheap pinko crap. When the king asked the businessmen what he could do for them, the response was "laissez faire"- LET US ALONE. Can't very well twist that story into any form of calling for more taxes or regulation or re-distribution.
Nor could you use that to rally for protectionist legislation, import tariffs and such. From that side, consider the term as also representing discipline for businesses.
7 - Jim Carruthers
Hey, Al, were you so impressed with Club for Growth, you became a client (I have no idea what CfG is but imagine it probably has something to do with spray on hair or pecker pills).
The biggest problem I have with the "free market" types is that they say one thing and do the opposite. They largely seem to be for rigged markets and tariffs which protect their own interests to keep winners winning, and suckers sucking. Y'know like the casinos that moral loser Bill Wasisname kept going to.
If you want capitalism with the brakes off, why don't you move to Russia, since that is what a really free market looks like. Oligarchs, guns and a hey, bonus, a nasty foreign war.
8 - Tim Hall
Surely both the Religious Right and the Club for Growth are both fundies, of a kind. It's just that one lot have the Scofield Bible as their holy book, while the others have Atlas Shrugged as theirs.
9 - Jim Carruthers
Who would have thought, ten years ago, you'd be able to yell, "hey, freepie, why don't you move to Russia!"?
10 - Jim
It seems like Dobson et. al. is merely pointing out Specter's stand on issues. Conservatives thus informed may indeed vote against him. How is this targeting?
11 - Mac Diva
Jim (the new one), I suggest reading the link to the Club and other articles about it. The group raises millions of dollars, selects moderate Republicans and tries its damnedest to replace them with Neandertal's like Toomey. That is why I used the word 'targeting.' Normally, a party and its members want a candidate of their own who can win. The Club doesn't. It wants people to the extreme far Right only.
12 - Mac Diva
Jim (the other new one), I believe the club and the religious Right do have a commonality in targeting moderate Republicans. Yes, Dobson and his crew are about:
*Depriving women of the right to abortion,
*Keeping women in the home,
*Preventing gay marriage,
and other so-called 'social' issues.
The Club is about returning society to the nail and claw stage of development by removing all support mechanisms for the poor and middle-class, and, of course, making the rich even richer.
Where the two come together is in backwards momentum. Dobson would prefer a society where the workplace is off limits to women, who would be busy being bare foot and pregnant anyway. The Club would prefer a society in which only the rich have any means to soften the blows of fate. You know, one in which the beggar and the billionaire are equally free to sleep under bridges. The two visions are similar, though the average Dobson supporter may not know much about economics. That is why the Club and the religious Right are supporting the same candidates, such as Toomey.
13 - Nick Jones
"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets or steal bread."
- Anatole France, "The Red Lilly," 1894.
Just so's you have the exact quote. It's one of my favorites.
14 - Mac Diva
Thank you, Nick. I will not be surprised if some of our regular commenters try to defend such obvious injustice as 'equality.'