There are a lot of Republican candidates to consider come the primary on August 10th, and it just so happens that all of them claim to be pro-life. Is there a difference? Personally, I believe there are many large and important differences between the various candidates, but more importantly, CRTL (Colorado Right To Life) has published some unfortunate findings as regards expoused Pro-Life positions. CRTL's Blog has a lengthy explaination that is very good - but, lengthy. So, below, I have condensed the info as much as possible, and kept it to the Republican Candidates in the Senate and Governor's races. If you want to read the rest of the candidates mentioned, feel free to read the original article. I hope this is helpful for you in making your decisions for the August 10th Primaries.

About CRTL

We do not assume any candidate is pro-life unless they've responded to our candidate survey, or we have some other reason to trust their positions are sincere. CRTL does not officially endorse candidates for any office, but we will let you know which ones are NOT pro-life, and try to offer guidance on the rest. Please, NEVER assume a candidate is pro-life because of their party affiliation!

U.S. Senate Race

Republican Ken Buck is a credible candidate we consider very strongly pro-life and pro-Personhood, based on conversations with him. He is on record supporting Personhood, though we have not received his candidate questionnaire.

Republican Jane Norton has supported "abortion exceptions" in the past (i.e. for rape & incest, which is from our perspective "pro-abortion with exceptions"), and for some time refused to support Personhood. She was scheduled to meet with someone about Personhood, but the meeting hasn't happened yet despite every effort. However, she has apparently endorsed Personhood recently, along with the other Republican candidates for U.S. Senate. Questions to her campaign to confirm this went unanswered, and she has not responded to our survey, sent by certified letter, and she's had enough time to respond.

Again, we must question Jane Norton's sincerity on this issue, because she has seemed more reluctant than willing. She did participate in Gov. Owens' cutoff of Planned Parenthood from state funding, and we applaud her actions on that (as a cabinet member).

Governor's Race

Scott McInnis (R - Former Congressman) is the establishment candidate who the GOP thinks is "the man to beat Hickenlooper." He is running as a pro-life candidate, but is short on meaningful specifics. He was formerly a ranking member of the pro-abortion group Republicans for Choice, and is known to have supported some pro-abortion legislation (including taxpayer funding for abortions) and to have opposed some pro-life measures. He claims to have "changed his mind" about abortion, and has even expressed support for Personhood, but he has not responded to CRTL's survey (sent by certified letter 2 weeks ago, and also several times by e-mail), and we have real doubts about his sincerity. Don't believe his claims that he has a "pro-life voting record" -- HE DOES NOT. [...]

We were impressed when Dan Maes (R) became only the second major candidate to respond to our candidate survey. We had a question about his original survey, and in time and after some dialogue he responded with support for 7 of 7 of CRTL's central points, as explained in our candidate survey. We consider him 100% pro-life, and are happy that he is doing so well in the Governor's race -- no one gave him a chance early on, but he's turned out to be a strong and credible candidate.

[None of the emphasis above was added by me, but reflects the original article]

Thanks for your interest, and don't forget to vote on August 10th!

Keeping An Eye Out

In general, there's so many things going on it's hard to keep track of it all, but here's some highlights to remind us of what we're fighting for, how much we've done, and how important it is to keep going over the next three years:

First, here's some great footage of the 9/12 March on Washington. This is impressive stuff:



Also, yesterday, Gary Bauer quoted a speech made by Mike Pence about Joe Wilson. The entire speech was excellent, so here it is [courtesy of VA Social Conservative]:




Keep watching the ACORN Prostitution Scandal as well - if you hadn't heard, they've now released video's from Baltimore, MD, Washington D.C., New York, NY, San Bernadino, CA and now, their latest, San Diego, CA - every one more incriminating and unbelievable than the last. Be sure to go back to earlier posts on BigGovernment.com and see the earlier ones. It's well worth the time.

EOD Report - Interesting Joe Wilson Commentary

If you're not familiar with Gary Bauer's End of Day Report, go Here and sign up - it's good stuff. Today, EOD had some interesting comments about the Joe Wilson issue, and some especially interesting quotes from Mike Pence:

"Republicans Defend Wilson

Yesterday I urged Republicans in the House of Representatives to stand up and defend Joe Wilson (R-SC) when the vote to discipline him came to the floor. Wilson, not surprisingly, was reprimanded by a 240-to-179 party line vote. (Seven Republicans voted against Wilson, while 12 Democrats voted for him).

Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, the current Republican House Conference Chairman and rising star in the GOP, was one of the strongest voices for sanity in the debate. Pence spoke on Wilson’s behalf on the House floor yesterday, telling his colleagues: “The American people want better. The American people want less politics and more jobs. They want Congress to set aside petty partisan politics and come together to take action to get this economy moving again.”

Rep. Pence also noted, “Ironically, because of Joe Wilson’s outburst, we have been engaged in nearly a week-long debate about what’s really in H.R. 3200. In fact, now the American people know there's nothing in the Democrat’s bill in the House that requires an individual to verify their identity or citizenship.”

He closed his statement by saying, “Last Wednesday was not a good day in the House, but today is worse. Today we see politics overwhelming the institution. The American people are tired. So let me say again … I urge my colleagues to vote ‘no’ on this resolution, put attention back on the work that the American people sent us here to perform, and that is to serve the interests of their families and the interests of this Nation with everything we’ve got. I’m with Joe; vote no.”

I want to share these comments because many of you have responded to this report frustrated with the Republicans in Congress for their perceived reluctance to stand up and fight back against the radical Left. The Republican leadership IS fighting back, despite facing a huge Democrat majority and Big Media that is marching in lockstep with the liberal agenda in Washington. I urge you to keep an eye on Mike Pence in the future."

Also, I should give VaSocialConservative a great deal of credit for suggesting I watch Mike Pence in the first place.

Keeping An Eye Out - Federal Friday

Hello everyone!

I know it's been a while, which is why I've got four items for you!

First, I've got a quick update on Secondhand Smoke, the bioethics blog I follow... It moved!! Here's the new address. If you've not read him before, I highly recommend it. The bioethics debate affects our basic rights so it is very, very important to be abreast of what is going on, scary though it may be.

Second: Whew, after something heavy like bioethics, you'll need something lighter. Here it is, one of my favorite Stoplight video's from the past month or so:



Hope you enjoy this!

Third: A lot of people probably got a chance to see this live, and more have likely seen this video, but I want to be sure everyone at least knows it exists. Glenn Beck interviewed Rush Limbaugh a few nights ago on Fox. It's a really great interview, available here - take a few minutes and watch it, or read the transcript if you prefer.

Forth: Last but not least, if you watch Glenn Beck's show on Fox News, you may have noticed the US Debt Clock. You may not have noticed that it's also a real website that anyone has access to. Anyhow, here it is, and I hope you take a look at it. I'll also be linking to it in my sidebar links.

Colorado is a wonderful place, and as summer is drawing to a close earlier than I'm used to from Virginia, I'm feeling that political spirit rise a bit early... hope you do too, there's a lot at stake this summer. Go to your town hall meetings, if you have any, get connected with some email loops from tea party or 9-12 groups, spend a few hours at some rallies, calling senators, et cetera and perhaps we can turn this country around!

(Oh, and to all of you in and around Virginia, there are early rumblings about the campaigns. Those are very important elections, so be sure to get involved there too.)

At the end of it all, God is in control of all this, so be sure to keep praying!

Daniel Hannan

This is an amazing video - if only one of our American Republicans would speak out this way towards Obama.

Federal Friday: Republican's Going the Right Direction!

Below is commentary from Gary Bauer's End of Day Report, but first, I first want to state some things very clearly concerning what has happened regarding the "Stimulus" Bill:

1) Nancy Pelosi and President Obama shut out the Republican's from having any say in the "stimulus" bill... I.E., not one Republican wrote one word of it!
2) The Republican's stood strong against the "stimulus" bill, and not one Republican voted for it!
Translation: Not ONE Republican can be tied to this bill... if (or, rather, when) it fails, not one Republican will be able to become the Democratic scape goat!

This is excellent news... yes, even though the thing passed, it is a huge step in the "Right" direction for the Republicans! (Please pardon the pun)

From Gary Bauer's End of Day Report:

GOP Stands Firm!
Congratulations to House Republicans! Few thought they could do it, but they held together, stood firm and voted unanimously against the pork-filled monstrosity. The bill is over 600 pages long, and by one estimate it will cost us approximately $1.8 billion per page.

Of course, the liberal media wait until the day after it passes the House before they tell the American people what is in the bill. Remember all those “shovel ready” infrastructure programs President Obama promised? Well, the Boston Globe reports this headline today, “Only 5 percent of $819b plan would go toward infrastructure.”

The New York Times tells us, “Components of Stimulus Vary in Speed and Efficiency.” Speed and efficiency should be the most important considerations in any serious stimulus bill, but this was not a serious stimulus bill. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that most of the money will not be spent until 2010 or years later. In addition, the Associated Press reports today that the bill may even allow illegal aliens to qualify for additional benefits.

Here’s the truth: This is not an economic stimulus bill at all. It is a Democrat Party stimulus bill – payoffs to leftwing special interest groups with your tax money! The public may slowly be waking up. A new Rasmussen poll finds that only 42% of likely voters support this “stimulus” plan.

But even with the GOP voting unanimously against the bill, and even with 11 brave Democrats also voting against it, this budget buster passed by a wide margin of 244-to-188. It passed because the Democrats defeated dozens and dozens of conservatives in the past two elections by outspending us and outworking us.

This vote should be a wake-up call to conservatives who have walked away from the GOP, who backed third party candidates with no hope of winning or who just didn’t bother to vote at all. Elections have consequences. And when conservatives don’t participate, the Left will always win.
Here’s my point: The next two years will be rough and there will be many setbacks. But Republicans are fighting back! And rather than focusing our frustration on our friends in the minority party, let’s remember who is setting the agenda and who control Congress – Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Now, let’s get to work rebuilding our conservative movement so we can take back Capitol Hill in 2010! There are reasons to be encouraged about the future, and I will report them in the days ahead.

Media Distortions

Big liberal media are very good at taking a falsehood and repeating it over and over again until it is accepted as fact. Let me tell you what you’re going to hear in the next few days, because it’s already started. The Republicans are going to get slammed day after day for opposing the president and for “irresponsible partisanship,” as Nancy Pelosi’s press release put it today. After all, President Obama went to Capitol Hill and spent two hours with Republicans trying to win their support. How dare they vote against his top priority!

But bi-partisan means that both sides give up something and both sides get something. This bill was written by Democrats and the Obama White House. None of the GOP’s ideas were incorporated in the bill. It was Obama and Pelosi who killed bi-partisanship – not the GOP.

Here’s something else you need to know. In the next few days, the Left will flood GOP offices with angry messages, saying they will never get reelected. If your representative is a Republican, please call and thank him or her. The number is 202-224-3121. Simply ask the operator to connect you to your congressman’s office.

I went to Capitol Hill today to thank as many House Republicans as I could. Then I went to the Senate, where the fight is about to begin, and I encouraged Senate conservatives to close ranks behind our key principles of lower taxes, less spending and support for traditional values.

Campaign for Working Families
2800 Shirlington Road
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Arlington, VA 22206

Phone: 703-671-8800
Fax: 703-671-8899