DEMOCRATS & ABORTION
I missed this Christmas-Eve NY TIMES story about Democrats reassesing the issue of ABORTION. The article ranges from people saying that we shouldn't be ashamed of our position & rethink how we speak about it, to people who want to basically surrender on parental notification & partial birth. I think we need to lead on issues & not be AFRAID to say what we believe. We would add abortion to a growing list of issues on which we are told we shouldn't say out loud what we may believe inside (i.e. Gay Marriage - Iraq) People may not entirely like our positions, but they'll respect us for saying what we believe. Two quotes stand out in the article...
"We ought not turn our back on pro-life people, even though the vast majority of people in this party are pro-choice,....I don't have any objection to someone who is pro-life, if they really dedicated to the welfare of children."
--Gov. Howard Dean
"Even I have trouble explaining to my family that we are not about killing babies."
--Donna Brazile
ALSO...
COLLEGE REPUBLICANS SINK TO THE LEVEL OF TELEVANGELISTS
College Republicans have been using some questionable fundraising tactics, according to the WASHINGTON POST...
The College Republican National Committee is under fire for using front organizations to collect millions of dollars in contributions,
including money from elderly people with dementia.
During the 2004 campaign, the group sent out direct-mail solicitations under such letterheads as "Republican Headquarters 2004" and "Republican Election Committee."
One four-page letter asked prospects to send $1,000 together with an American flag pin for President Bush to wear to "Republican Headquarters" to ensure that Bush knows "there are millions who are giving him the shield of God to protect him in the difficult days ahead."
In small print at the bottom of one page, the letter notes: "A project of and paid for by College Republican National Committee."
...Internal disputes over fundraising tactics have been brewing among College Republican groups for at least three years, but they surfaced in late October, after the publication of damaging news reports in the Seattle Times and the Durham Herald-Sun.
The Times reported that a number of elderly donors gave far more money than they could afford.
"I don't have any more money," Cecilia Barbier, 90, a retired church worker in New York who made more than 300 donations totaling nearly $100,000, told the paper. "That was all the savings. . . . Now I'm scrounging."
Monda Jo Millsap, 68, of Van Buren, Ark., told the Times that she emptied a savings account, then got a $5,000 bank loan to give a total of $59,000.
In the immediate aftermath, Hoplin e-mailed top state officials of the organization, telling them not to speak to the news media. "We need the story to go away," he wrote. "The story is full of lies and distortions written by a well-known liberal who is out to get us. If the press asks you about it, tell them you have no comment"...