The GOP's big blink

November 2002 marked the first time in exactly 50 years that elections resulted in Republican control of all three branches of U.S. government – and 30 years after the passage of Roe vs. Wade.

The clock ticks slowly for pro-lifers, and those 30 years were agonizing as we fumblingly tried to decipher the right combination to remake abortion illegal.

The GOP emerged as a key code politically when it slowly evolved into a pro-life party, while the Democrat Party devolved.

Pro-lifers worked hard to achieve this current political season and are largely responsible for it. The GOP majority alignment has already borne many fruits, although they always seem to ripen too slowly. A bonus has been that all four Republican leaders are pro-life (Bush, Cheney, Frist and Hastert).

But there’s always something.

In the Senate, it is seven Republicans who are squarely to blame for the GOP’s big blink last week in the battle over President Bush’s judicial nominees, which is really a battle over abortion.

In the House, it is 49 Republicans who are squarely to blame for last week’s pointless push and passage of a human embryo kill-bill (HR 810) by a nonveto-proof vote of 238-194.

It is no secret President Bush opposes embryonic stem-cell research, as does the socially conservative Republican base. So Republican involvement with ESCR legislation can only stir up trouble for the president and anger those most likely to vote Republican.

Yet Republican pro-abort Mike Castle, Del., was one of HR 810′s two chief sponsors, and he, along with fellow Republican pro-abort Mark Kirk, Ill., were instrumental in pressuring Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert, Ill., to call it for a vote.

As The Hill reported May 19:

The Castle legislation would put pressure on the White House and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., whose fight to secure up-or-down votes for the president’s judicial nominees has been seen by many as an outright appeal to conservative voters. If the House passes the Castle bill, Frist will be forced to deal with the issue.

More than that, if HR 810 passes in the Senate, which is likely, it will result in the first veto of President Bush’s presidency, a major distinction.

Not only did Castle and Kirk force a vote on legislation that could only draw liberal propaganda (lies) and mainstream media bias (pro-ESCR and anti-President Bush and conservatives), they betrayed fellow Republicans to do so. They secretly commissioned a poll on ESCR in 13 GOP congressional districts represented by conservatives to try to coerce them to vote for their bill.

That move created a major rift in the House GOP, almost got Kirk into a fistfight with an “infuriated” Republican Rep. Rick Renzi, Ariz., and ultimately forced Kirk and Castle to apologize. It also angered conservative members so much they decided to call for a vote on a pro-umbilical cord blood stem-cell bill the same day as HR 810. It passed 434-1, quite embarrassing to the pro-ESCR people.

What’s more, Kirk, along with pro-abort Republican Reps. Judy Biggert, Ill., and Joe Schwarz, Mich., sponsored a so-called “hearing” on ESCR in Chicago at the Dirksen Federal Building on May 16, right before the House vote, but did not allow anyone to speak who was against ESCR. They only allowed proponents who “testified … that Bush’s policy is hampering work that could lead to treatments for their conditions,” according to the Chicago Tribune. Sounds like political treason to me.

I called the “hearing” organizers three times requesting to know who paid for the “hearing” room – ESCR proponents or taxpayers? That their offices are not responding apparently provides the answer.

About the shenanigans of Castle, Kirk, et al, pro-life Republican Rep. Dave Weldon, Fla., said, “This whole debate has been about deception.” About the crusade for ESCR itself he said, “It’s almost like they have a lust to kill embryos or something.”

Weldon is right. Promotion of the anti-life agenda is all about the lust for power and money by means of deception and betrayal. Always.

I hope Republican leaders sees that Republican anti-lifers are no more trustworthy than Democrat anti-lifers.