Former Indiana Congressman Tim Roemer
announced "he has been asked by representatives of the Democratic National Committee [including Howard Dean] to speak for the party
on social issues at local Democrat functions."
From "Mission: Get the message out there," Herald-Argus:
At Friday's National Press Club panel, he said the party should directly address controversial issues of abortion and gay marriage, while also stressing its commitment on other values ... reductions in poverty and the number of abortions, preservation of jobs and environmental protection ...
"The Democratic Party has an ocean of room and a huge opportunity to address these issues in the future," Roemer said.
He [criticized] Republicans and Bush [for] narrow reliance on gay marriage and abortion as their signature moral issues, and Democrats [for] an "inarticulate response."
"Democrats all too often needed a passport or a visa to visit red states and suburban churches."
Some don't buy it: "The Democratic Party [talks] inclusion but picks Howard Dean [over] the pro-life aspirant, Tim Roemer."
More below ...
From "A rock and a hard place: Democratic leaders try to oppose abortion even as they support it," by Andree Seu in
World Magazine, a Christian weekly:
The Democrats, apres le deluge de 2004, are tinkering with a new approach to abortion rhetoric. This is to be distinguished, of course, from a new approach to abortion.
Is it repentance or repackaging when Howard Dean (the Party's new chairman) starts saying things like "I have long believed that we ought to make a home for pro-life Democrats"? Is it substance or semantics when Sen. Hillary Clinton says abortions should occur "only in rare circumstances"? Is it from the heart or pandering to the heartland when a defeated John Kerry tells a pro-choice gathering in D.C. after Thanksgiving that they'd better let Americans know they don't like abortion?
Is it love--or loss of 97 of the 100 fastest growing counties in the country--that moves them?
But, Seu notes, the Republicans are also trying to play to both sides of the divisive issue:
But Republicans, be not proud! The 165-member Republican National Committee has elected Ken Mehlmen as its counterpart to the DNC's Dean--and this despite his selection of pro-choice JoAnn Davidson as co-chair. (She had helped Bush win Ohio. This pay-back time is reminiscent of the 2002 RNC election of a pro-choice New Jersey fundraiser to appease the Party's wealthy donors. Both occurred over vocal pro-life protest.)
From the LifeNews report on Roemer's Friday appearance before the National Press Club:
Roemer made a bid for the party chairmanship and said the party needed to reconsider its strong pro-abrotion views to attract more voters in the South and Midwest.
However, he lost to former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, an abortion advocate who lost the presidential nomination to John Kerry but found himself the darling of pro-abortion groups and the party's liberal wing.
Although abortion advocates ran a fierce campaign against Roemer -- snubbing him from meetings and booing him at gatherings -- Dean decided he would be a valuable speaker.
"They've reached out and asked if I want to go to different states, give Jefferson-Jackson speeches, reach out and talk about some of the issues I talked about in the DNC race," Roemer told the National Press Club.
According to a Jan. 9 Associated Press/ABC story on Roemer's candidacy for national chair:
Roemer, a Catholic from Indiana who opposes abortion, said said he respects the position of Democrats who favor abortion choice and have written it into their party platform.
My two cents: We have room in the Democratic party for those who oppose abortion but who agree with the right of choice. Roemer will help bridge gaps in strategic local appearances. And, I'm glad that Howard Dean is reaching wider:
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Friday that his party is laying the groundwork for a 50-state strategy for the 2008 presidential race. Dean said early fund-raising will be geared toward having the party pay for workers to help with state and local races, initially in selected states.
He criticized spending by the Bush administration and said that running deficits will prevent the country from mounting a strong defense against its foes. He also said President Bush and other Republicans launched divisive issues during the campaign, such as gay marriage. Dean said the country needs to close its divisions.
The Chairman said the deficits built under the Bush administration, plus policies that Dean and other Democrats present said make life harder for rural residents, will leave the Republicans vulnerable at the polls in upcoming elections.
"I think the Democratic Party is in the center," Dean said. "We're more conservative than Republicans are when it comes to money."
Liberal perspectives, including some thoughts from Lakoff's Rockridge Institute:
Eugene McCarthy:
As long as the differences and diversities of mankind exist, democracy must allow for compromise, for accommodation, and for the recognition of differences.
Margaret Mead:
If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.
Carol Joffe, via the Rockridge Institute:
Many progressives are now undergoing a reevaluation of the "costs" of a commitment to abortion rights.
Abortion can best be defended if it is framed as one element of a larger platform of sexual and reproductive rights and services.
There exists now a powerful opening to expose the hypocrisy of "family values" conservatives who seek to withhold from working Americans virtually all that they need--contraception, meaningful sex education, health care for the uninsured, living wages, affordable childcare, as well as abortion care--to raise healthy families.