Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Today’s Huckabee Hilarity.


Via Christina Page at The Huffington Post, it appears the Huckster isn’t just anti-abortion, kids, he’s anti-contraception as well.

Today, Governor Mike Huckabee is scheduled to travel to Georgia to commemorate the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. There he plans to join Georgia Right to Life to lend his support, as well as the focus of the national media, to HR 536. This legislation, also called the Human Life Amendment, is a state constitutional amendment that reclassifies the most effective and popular forms of contraception as abortion. The goal of the amendment is to create a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade while also defining life as beginning at fertilization. The anti-abortion movement believes that hormonal contraception (the pill, the patch, the depo shot, the nuva ring, the IUD) can destroy a fertilized egg. By setting in law the assertion -- the unproveable assertion -- that life begins at the moment of fertilization, the most common forms of contraception become abortion.

James Bopp, a leading anti-abortion attorney, in a memo to pro-life activists, explained what the practical applications of HR 536 would be. Establishing in law that life begins at the moment of fertilization could lead to, he writes, "enforcement of homicide laws against pregnant women, restricting the activities of pregnant women, outlawing contraception and so on." He continues, "The big picture is that the Human Life Amendment creates uncertainty in the law leaving it up to future legislatures to establish implementing laws and up to enforcement officials and courts to sort out what the law might mean in various applications." In other words, let's leave your right to use contraception up to your local assemblymember, district attorney and sheriff.

Huckabee appears comfortable with the implications of defining the most commonly used forms of contraception as abortion. In an April 2007 interview with the Des Moines Register editorial board, Huckabee explained his position this way, "There are some forms of birth control that really are the destruction of a fertilized egg." One of the editors offered a follow-up question, "Should the government ban that sort of birth control?" Huckabee replied, "Yeah, I personally think there are better ways to deal with contraception than destroying a human life. So, again I'm going to say that I'm always going to make my position on the side of protecting human life."

Paging Karma ... Karma, please pick up the white courtesy phone. All joking aside, there are times when the Huckster scares the crap out of me. But, more importantly, he scares the Republicans even more. They’ve been kissing up to the Evangelical fundies for years, saying all the right things to get them on board without ever actually following through on their promises; more than happy to take their money and their resources in order to win elections.

Because at the end of the day, the Republicans are a lot of things but stupid isn’t one of them. They know they can’t win solely on wedge issues like abortion and gay marriage but that doesn't stop them from chipping away with symbolic votes and legislation they know will be overturned in the courts. That's how they're able to justify their slippery behaviour to the Evangelicals.

And then along comes the Huckster saying exactly what the fundies want to hear with one huge difference - he means it, and this freaks the Republicans out. Because he’s a true believer unlike Reagan and Poppy Bush and Dubya, who, while believers to an extent, were just saying the right words to the right people like any good con artist. The Republicans cannot afford to have the Huckster win the nomination and they know this better than anyone. And that, my dears, is why karma will always bite you on the ass in the end.

4 comments:

Niles said...

So...does UNSANEZ want to ban contraception as well? I'm surprised she hasn't gone to work for the man yet. Is he too Protestant? Or has Lyle Oberg (who SO should have been Alberta's premier...we could have this show at home!) beaten her to the token Canadian position on the staff?

LuLu said...

Funny you should mention that ... Suzie ALL-CAPS has a post on her abortion of a blog which blathers on mindlessly on "why most pro-lifers oppose contraception". I wouldn't try to hard too make sense of it, it's just her usual brain-numbing hysteria.

Lindsay Stewart said...

sweet bumpin' jesus. i guess by huck's logic swallowing is genocide.

LuLu said...

Jesus, PSA, you owe me a new keyboard since mine is now covered in coffee ... funny.