Chi Trib’s Eric Zorn defends Obama in the matter of protecting aborted but born-alive infants, arguing that (a) O. voted against protecting them if it risked abortion rights in general and (b) he did so with fellow Dems as a matter of course.
[Republic Sen.] Winkel asked Obama’s committee to add that same “neutrality language” [that made it palatable to U.S. Senate Democrats] to his bill. In accordance with legislative tradition, the 10 members present voted unanimously to approve Winkel’s amendment. And then, after some discussion, they voted 6-4 along party lines to kill the bill.
“The feeling of the majority was that the bill still created great uncertainty about whether it would compromise abortion rights” in Illinois, said Sen. Jeff Schoenberg of Evanston, one of six Democrats, including Obama, who voted no. [Emphasis added]
Z. would seem to consider it irrelevant that O. acted this way, effectively making safety of the born-alive dispensable for what he sees as the greater good of abortion rights. Crass pragmatism, that. Chilling.
And O’s going along to get along in Springfield? How would that sit with hundreds of thousand undecided voters? Need we ask?
Blithe Spirit 