If McCain Picks a Pro Life VP Will Some of the Bellyaching End?

There has been a uproar in the Pro-Life oriented blogs and elsewhere about McCain not coming out and saying that a person like Tom Ridge (that I am told is pro-choice) is not off the list.

The response of " See Pro-lifers can't trust McCain" are on too many blogs to count. Even though we have seen such a delicate dance before on this issue by George Bush I, George Bush II, and Bob Dole.

In fact with the current President he was saying the same and doing the same thing with Gov. Ridge!!!

I will be very disappointed if McCain does not pick a pro-lifer and to be honest I expect he very much will pick a pro-lifer. I agree with a Corner blog posting where Rich Lowry posted a letter he received?

Subject: There's a point to CLAIMING you're considering Ridge [Rich Lowry]
E-mail:

Hi, Rich. I think both candidates have been doing the same mildly cynical though not at all objectionable thing: paying courtesy lip service to the concept of being open to individuals whose views are outside the party mainstream.

In reality, Kaine, Lieberman, and Ridge have no chance of being selected (for a start, because of each of the three’s abortion position). But it doesn’t hurt Obama much even with the pro-abortion zealots to put Kaine on a short list, and far more importantly it shows everyone else that he’s not just picking from a narrow list of those who pass the Dem litmus test – even though he actually is.

Conversely, it doesn’t hurt McCain to agree to the general idea of Ridge of Lieberman being a fine VP choice, even though he knows he’s going to go with Tim, Mitt, or Eric. He’s just assuring pro-aborts that they’re not summarily denied a place at the table even before the meeting starts. Instead, he doles them out a few crumbs, just as Obama is doing.

It’s a lie, but it’s a white lie and it’s common. It certainly comes up routinely when Supreme Court names are bruited about, and there’s nothing wrong with it – except that as now, overzealous Kremlinologists can read a little too much into the message and overreact.
08/15 12:02 PM

I think that is pretty much what is up . I also suspect that many pro-lifers complaining about McCain know that too but well are just keeping on the fire under McCain (which is good) or some still don't realize the primary is over (which is bad).

Father Martin Fox, who was also involved in politics, who blogs at Bonfire of the Vanities Had a pretty sane post about what might be going on here at McCain to pick pro-abort veep? He lists a series of options about what is going on. I tend to agree with #3 and #4 and that McCain can't give the more pro choice wing of the party the bird!!! Pro lifers if you want McCain to give the pro-choice wing of the party the bird then you better start on party building drive to get more Republicans fast.

One of the major issue that Pro-lifers have McCain is embryonic stem cell research. I understand that and it is one I have. It does appear though he is more open to the alternatives that research is showing in the adult stem cell research arena. I think Pro Lifers, Catholics and People of Faith concerned about the culture of death need to keep pressing McCain on this point. That is valid. However let us say tonight he has a sudden conversion experience and says he is against it? Would any of you buy it?

I get the feeling that a lot of the pro-life complaints I hear about McCain involve issues that are not truly pro-life related (as to abortion etc) and people are mixing issues.

I keep hearing two things that sort of irk me. How McCain will throw Pro-lifers under the bus and how most social conservatives and pro lifers do not like McCain.

I don't think that is true . This led to find a article I was reading months ago at the New Republic that at the time infuriated me as a Huckabee supporter, Catholic and Pro-lifer called Who Will Save The Unborn? that centered around the March For Life in DC held earlier this year.

This part made me mad enough to spit nails at the time but looking back is pertinent to the issues in the air today.

With the exception of the Paul fans, and one woman wielding a Thompson sign (she obviously didn't get the memo), though, there isn't any visible support for any of the other presidential candidates. I expected Mike Huckabee to be a crowd favorite, based on his years as a pastor, his passage of Arkansas' Unborn Child Amendment, and his loud support for overturning Roe. Later that afternoon, at a tea for right-to-life bloggers at the Catholic Information Center a few blocks from the rally, I begin to understand his lack of support. "Huckabee is very religious, and he makes a lot of pro-lifers uncomfortable," says Dawn Eden, a popular anti-abortion blogger and author of The Thrill of the Chaste, sipping on her tea. But aren't pro-lifers very religious? I ask. "It's his association with anti-Catholics like John Hagee," she says, referring to the immensely popular televangelist who once accused Catholics of "plung[ing] the world into the Dark Ages."

Wow talk about Social Conservatives and pro-lifers throwing people under the bus.Of course at this time this pro-lifer did not know( or use google) that Huckabee hardly knew Hagee while McCain had a much bigger relationship with him. She also did not know that Huckabee was pro-life when he collided in a magnificent way with other conservatives views(that is one faction) on immigration when he said under the Arkansas Pro -Life Amendment that a a person even unborn was a Arkansas resident had the rights of everyone else. Thus even children in the womb of a illegal alien could not be denied prenatal care. No pro-life concerns seemed to be more concerned about what other pro-life voters a person running for President could be seen in public with. We have come a long way baby!!

Perhaps McCain should distrust Pro-lifers since we don't seem that reliable on rewarding those that stick by us.

The article continues:

Her message is clear: Catholics, who have historically been the heart of the pro-life movement in the U.S., don't trust evangelicals with their cause. With unmatched urgency, the Catholic Church put a significant amount of money into forming pro-life groups after Roe. The Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities, approved soon after Roe by the full body of Catholic bishops, called on each diocese to establish a pro-life office. The Church's National Right to Life Committee is the largest antiabortion organization in the country. As Roy White, then executive director of the committee, asserted in 1975, "The only reason we have a pro-life movement in this country is because of the Catholic people and the Catholic Church." Jill Staneck, a Chicago nurse and prominent pro-life blogger, tells me at the tea, "Some evangelicals have been trying, but Catholics have 2000 years of consistency on this issue, and since Catholics make up one-quarter of the population, they are not going to trust this issue to just anyone."

Holy Crap. I suggest to these Catholic voices that it is not 1975 and we have far more problems in our own house. It is also very embarrassing!!! Poor Huckabee gets accused of being some anti Catholic and leading Catholics in the pro-life movement are saying far more offensive things about evangelicals. I suppose if the Catholic pro-life movement has not noticed that names such as Kennedy, Cuomo, Landrieu, Dodd, Kerry, Guillani, and a ton of other Catholic politicos that are the real problem then we are in a tad of fix. However we get to this part:

And so, despite the waves of eager Paul supporters, the loudest applause at the march, comparable in volume only to mentions of Justices Roberts and Alito, was reserved for John McCain, who didn't appear in person but was represented in a letter read by Kansas Senator Sam Brownback: "I pledge to you that I will be a loyal and unswerving friend of the right-to-life movement," McCain wrote.

Wait I thought most social conservatives did not Support McCain!!!! At least that is the gospel I keep hearing on the net.

I sort of quit buying this when I was a Huckabee guy as I saw McCain getting a huge amount of Social Conservative vote when it was largely a three man race between Huck, Romney, and McCain and later when it was a two man race with Huck and McCain. Not saying Huckabee did not get a ton of social conservatives but to think that McCain had none is folly.

Would this be in jeopardy to some extent or at least defuse turn out if McCain picked a pro choice guy? I suspect it would and that for that practical reason alone I don't see McCain doing it. IF he does I will stick by him but it will cause legitimate problems.

But if he picks a reliable pro-lifer as VP then what shall be the response of a segment of the conservative pro life social conservative Peanut Gallery be. Will it be to roll up you sleeves and get McCain into the White House and stop Obama who voted for Infanticide out of it.

or will it be more of the following "You know first I am not really a Republican I am Conservative(because we know the GOP is full of RINOS) and I don't really like McCain and don't trust him and if I vote for McCain it is not a pro-McCain vote but really a vote against Obama and please my friend that I am trying to persuade now to vote against Obama and for McCain please do so in November".

People are free to make this argument but I do wonder if people feel this way that perhaps they would aid McCain more by just being quiet.

So who knows what will happen. Perhaps McCain will annouce he will be picking Tom Ridge tonight at Rick Warren's big Forum. I doubt it though.

However IF McCain picks a suitable pro-lifer, I hope people then decide to get on board that have reservations.