The Patriot Post® · Congress Gets in Line, New Ad Draws One
“This is an easy one,” Kellyanne Conway said, watching the line of Republicans snake around the House chamber to sign the discharge petition to end infanticide. But as everyone’s starting to understand, nothing’s easy in the new Democratic party. Not even the simplest decision to help a tiny child in distress. If she were in a burning building, or trapped in a hot car, we’d all know what to do. But suddenly, when she’s in the womb or taking her first breaths, it’s a question. Americans have answered it. How will Democrats?
We’re about to find out. “Here’s their opportunity to stand up and be counted,” Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said on the day he and more than 190 other Republicans drew a line on the House floor. “Even people who would align themselves as pro-choice believe it’s wrong to murder the baby after it’s born alive. And, yet it’s still allowed. There should be no reason that this a gray issue.”
Amazingly, for some liberals, this issue isn’t even gray — it’s black. One the most disturbing things we’ve heard this year (and there’ve been plenty) was Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s (D-Ill.) reaction to the GOP’s push to bring the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection bill to the floor. “Oh, my god,” she fumed. “They just will not quit. I think politically, it’s a really bad move for them, and substantively, it’s a disaster.” Funny, she didn’t seem this exasperated when her party ate up the legislative clock to save a handful of cats. But when Republicans come together and try to rescue thousands of newborns? It’s a bother.
As for Born-Alive being politically damaging, two things. First of all, our leaders should never make their decisions based on what’s popular. They should be making their decisions based on what’s right. Lucky for Republicans, this bill is both. In fact, you’d have to go back to the 1990s to find a discharge petition with more signatures on the first day than this one. Even so, insisting that Americans step in and save the lives of innocent children isn’t a choice you make out of political expediency. It’s a choice you make because that’s what civilized nations do. Eighty-two percent of Americans seem to understand that. Why don’t Democrats?
“[T]hey’re out of touch,” Scalise argued “…even with most Democrats,” Scalise argued. “It shows you just how far Left Pelosi’s new majority has moved. They’ve shifted away from a moderate [party] to a liberal party where socialists… have literally taken over the center of gravity. They’re on the wrong side on this issue.” Be warned, he told his friends across the aisle. There’s a grassroots movement across this country that’s passionate about protecting these tiny fighters, who’ve survived the worst the world could throw at them. “A lot of members are going to be asked why they haven’t signed on — and not only why they haven’t signed, but when they’re going to sign.”
FRC Action is hoping a new ad about birth day abortions will get those phones ringing — especially in areas of the country where voters thought they were electing decent people who understood the value of a life. Starting this week, our Action arm is launching commercials in congressional districts where we believe that enough pressure from you can turn the tide on infanticide. Democrats like Collin Peterson (Minn.), Dan Lipinski (Ill.), and Ben McAdams (D-Utah) had the moral courage to stand up and say, “Enough.” If your representative hasn’t, call them and remind them: this isn’t about abortion. It’s not about red versus blue. It’s about right versus wrong. How we decide this issue will define our legacy as Americans.
If you haven’t participated in the End Birth Day Abortion campaign, join the tens of thousands of pro-lifers who won’t stop fighting until every child is welcomed into the world with warmth. Help us send a message to the halls of power that we are a nation who protects life.
To watch the ad, click below. WARNING: Graphic content.
Originally published here.
The Senate’s Nuclear War over Confirmations
President Trump may be halfway through his first term, but he still has jobs to fill. Unfortunately for him, hiring hasn’t exactly been the easiest thing in a Senate full of Democrats desperately trying to run out the clock on his presidency.
It’s not a new problem, but it’s certainly an exacerbating one. Presidents throughout modern history have had to deal with the minority party’s shenanigans to confirm everyone from U.S. ambassadors to executive branch bureaucrats. As usual, though, Donald Trump seems to bring out the worst in liberals, who’ve been engaged in record-setting obstruction to stop the White House from getting its personnel in place. “If we don’t stop this behavior now,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned, “it will become the norm.”
Apart from the lightning-fast pace of judicial nominees, Senate Republicans have had a devil of a time getting lower-rung nominees through Senator Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) party. Even after a cloture vote, Democrats have been forcing another 30 hours of debate on the chamber for every nominee — not because it affected the outcome, but because it made the process as painful as possible for Republicans. By prolonging the vote, Democrats had the satisfaction of watching the GOP business grind to a halt.
Senators James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) were tired of the games and wanted to cut down the debate to just two hours, especially since the chamber would have already voted on whether or not to proceed with a name. “Just imagine if Democrats’ behavior over the past two years becomes the norm,” Senator John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters. “Presidents could be waiting years to adequately staff their administrations, and the Senate would be perpetually tied up on unnecessary cloture votes, leaving less and less tie to actually do the business of governing.”
What’s been especially frustrating, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) pointed out, is that these delays have nothing to do with the nominees themselves. They’re just a protest vote against the president. “Over the past two years, some in this body have decided that they will oppose any nominee suggested by President Trump,” he argued.
On Wednesday, McConnell used what some call the “nuclear option” to change the Senate precedent. By a vote of 51-48, Republicans agreed to pick up the pace on Trump’s hires on everyone but cabinet, Supreme Court, and circuit court nominees. From now on, Democrats will only be able to slow things down for two extra hours — not 30. But not every Republican was a fan of the idea, as Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Susan Collins (R-Maine.) made quite clear. The Senate, Lee argued, needs “to serve its deliberative function in our constitutional system… The current rules can work for the American people; they simply require us to do the same.”
For all of the worries that this will come back to bite Republicans, McConnell seemed well aware of the risks. Still, he said, this is about making the environment better for everyone. “… [A]bsent a change, these [delaying] tactics seem guaranteed to become standard practice for Senate minorities on both sides. I don’t think any of us want that in the future.”
Originally published here.
A Badger of Honor
By a razor-thin margin, Judge Brian Hagedorn, the conservative-backed candidate for Wisconsin state Supreme Court, has declared victory over the Left’s Judge Lisa Neubauer in an extremely close race for the state’s open Supreme Court seat. At last count, Hagedorn led by about 6,000 votes out of approximately 1.2 million cast — about half of one percent! “Anybody who says they’re not shocked is not being honest,” one strategist said.
Hagedorn’s come-from-behind success came as a shock to a lot of “experts,” since he was outspent by his opponent and abandoned by so many in the corporate community. Most people took for granted that since liberals won a lot of midterm elections last fall, they’d also take the court too. Not so. Hagedorn’s victory is a significant one for conservative, Constitution-loving citizens in Wisconsin, since it’s a deciding seat that should help set a strict originalist philosophy in the state for years to come.
Apart from liberals, the biggest losers on the night had to be extreme leftist groups like Planned Parenthood and Human Rights Campaign, who smeared Hagedorn as a bigot and “hater.” Why? Because he dared to help found a Christian school that believes what the Bible says about marriage and sexuality. The fact that he spoke to a group like Alliance Defending Freedom — who’s successfully argued numerous times before the U.S. Supreme Court — only seemed to add more gas on the liberals’ fire.
If anything, National Review points out, “the results… suggest that liberals overplayed their hand attacking religious and social conservatives. Neubauer and her liberal allies vilified Hagedorn as an anti-LGBT bigot because he had founded a Christian school that upholds Christian beliefs regarding sex and marriage…” Instead of boosting liberals, the attacks seemed to have the opposite effect — igniting the grassroots and, ultimately, pushing Hagedorn over the finish line. “Overplayed… is a fair criticism,” one Democratic operative told reporters about the anti-faith smear. The Neubauer campaign was “way too much about that” in the last days of the race.
In a lot of ways, it only seemed to add to the frustration that so many Americans feel these days. Hagedorn himself hinted at that in his own comments. “My job as a judge is to say what the law is and not what I think the law should be.” But, he acknowledged, if you’re “a Catholic or a Christian of various stripes, you’re going to get attacked.” Instead of buckling on his values, Hagedorn embraced them — arguing that he wasn’t intolerant; his critics were.
In the end, Wisconsin voters turned out to be just as sick of the Left’s tactics as everyone else. While “traditional Republican leaning outfits, such as the Wisconsin Realtors Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce” all abandoned him over his religious beliefs, motivated conservatives more than made up for it. Religious liberty won the day — and for the next 10 years, the court. Maybe next time Democrats will think twice about trying to slap the “hate” label on good people!
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.