Opinion Piece Takes On Attack Aimed At Kan. Gov. Sebelius' Abortion-Rights Support

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 29 May 2008 - 10:00 PST

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A recent syndicated column by Robert Novak, the "redoubtable right-wing hit man," criticizing Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) for her actions as governor on abortion-related issues is an example of the Republican Party's "hard cultural right" attempting to "revive abortion's single-issue virulence in this presidential cycle," Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten writes in an opinion piece.

According to Rutten, many believe Sebelius to be a front-runner for the Democratic vice presidential nomination should Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) become the party's presidential nominee. Some Republicans think "they see an opportunity to hammer once more on the abortion wedge" because of Obama's "perceived problems with blue collar Catholic voters in the late Democratic primaries" and because Sebelius has become their "most public target," Rutten writes.

Novak's assertions that Sebelius -- "or by extension Obama" -- has somehow benefitted from "something called 'the abortion industry,'" is an "absurd and rather vicious notion," Rutten writes, adding that some of Novak's "guilt by association" allegations about Sebelius came from the antiabortion group Operation Rescue. "One of the salutary characteristics of this election cycle is the way in which voters concerned with war and a failing economy have rejected single-issue appeals for the traditional American 'politics of remedy,'" Rutten writes, concluding, "If the culture warriors somehow believe they can still convince the millions of Catholic voters who cast primary ballots for the very pro-choice" Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) that they " now should switch" to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), "they're fighting the last war" (Rutten, Los Angeles Times, 5/28).

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