As every Democratic candidate lines up to express dismay at the Supreme Court decision on partial-birth abortion, I’d like to address something posted on the New Republic’s blog yesterday:
John Podhoretz, writing about Rudy Giuliani’s intransigence on abortion, is just thrilled that the GOP’s “big tent” is so welcoming to pro-choicers, while “anti-abortion views have been systematically purged from the Democratic party.” Has JPod forgotten that the Senate majority leader is pro-life? What about Senator Bob Casey Jr., whom the party establishment worked hard to recruit and elect last year?
Two things.
1) In my blog post yesterday, I was describing, not praising or celebrating, the self-identification of the GOP as a “big tent.” The “big tent” has always been spin of the Mary Matalin variety. I can only think of a few instances in which the GOP functioned as a “big tent” when push came to shove — in particular, the accceptance in Georgia of the candidacy of the late Paul Coverdell, who despite pro-choice views secured support from pro-lifers eager to secure Sam Nunn’s Senate seat for the GOP. The Coverdell model is the only precedent for what Rudy is trying to do. The specific point I was making is that Rudy Giuliani’s candidacy is the biggest test of the GOP as “big tent” — and Rich made the salient observation yesterday that pro-lifers themselves represent a tentpole without whom the big tent could collapse on itself.
2) Still, it’s patently ridiculous to suggest that the Democratic party is as hospitable to pro-life views as the Republican party is to pro-choice views. There are at least 10 Republican Senators who are pro-choice, and there are, I think, three Democratic Senators who are pro-life.
It’s instructive to bring up Bob Casey Jr.’s name in this context, because of course the birth of the “big tent” concept came about as a result of the Democratic Party’s refusal to allow his father — the governor of a swing state and one of the nation’s most populous — to speak at the Democratic convention in 1992. Casey Sr. himself said he was denied a speaking role because of his pro-life views. GOP spin doctors took this and ran with it hard, and have been talking “big tent” talk ever since.
I think it’s safe to say that Bob Casey Jr. was recruited to run for Senate last year not because the Democratic party was happy with his stance on abortion but because a strategic determination was made to try and split the pro-life vote in Pennsylvania and thereby deny Rick Santorum reelection.
That was good politics, especially since Casey’s victory won’t advance the pro-life agenda one inch.