Friday, June 15, 2007

Fred Thompson being slimed by another candidate on abortion

One of the other candidates (how much do you want to bet it's McCain) is doing his (her? :-) best to make Thompson look pro-choice:

A rival campaign gave CBN’s Brody a copy of a Tennesseans for Choice questionnaire from about 1996, in which Thompson answered “no” when asked if he favors criminalizing abortions. Brody highlights this Q&A:

“Question: Please summarize your personal philosophy on the issue of reproductive choice?"

Thompson: The Supreme Court has attempted to delineate the constitutionally appropriate roles for individual and governmental decision-making on the issue of abortion. Beyond that, I believe that the federal government should not interfere with individual convictions and actions in this area. I would make an exception to this general rule of governmental non-interference in a very limited number of cases where government has a compelling interest in promoting the public welfare. For instance, I believe that states should be allowed to impose various restrictions if they so choose.”

The Thompson people hit back by sending Brody a video of Thompson's remarks to the National Right to Life conference tonight in Kansas City. In it he mentions his voting record and how he helped Roberts through the confirmation process. But here is the most important part of the video:
On stem cell research, I’m for adult stem cell research not stem cell research where embryos of unborn children are destroyed. It looks to me like there is a lot of promising developments as far as adult stem cell research is concerned anyway and we don’t need to go down that other road.
I'm so glad that Thompson mentioned stem cells because it's the one thing that I've been worried about since the start of the Giuliani campaign, he's quick to mention that he'll put strict constructionist judges on the Supreme Court but he never mentions stem cells. Bush has been a strong advocate for life and has been solely responsible for halting our further descent into becoming a culture of death. I had feared that our candidate might not be such a strong advocate for life, Thompson puts those fears to rest by making this statement.