-=> On 04-11-98  20:36, Robert Plett did testify and affirm <=-
-=> to Robert Craft concerning Dufus' Waterloo? <=-
 RC> RP> Nice spin, but let's be clear about what it was they
 RC> RP> lobbied for, Robert. It wasn't about banning someone; they
 RC> RP> lobbied for continued party funding and support of
 RC> RP> political figures who favor the PBA.
 
 RC> "A rose by any other name..." The fact is that a minority
 RC> faction of the party attempted to sanction members who
 RC> supported an item which 1) was legal and 2) was not a plank
 RC> of the party platform on which opposition was required.
 RP> From the '96 Republican platform:
 RP> The unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life
 RP> which cannot be infringed. We support a human life
 RP> amendment to the Constitution and we endorse legislation to
 RP> make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections
 RP> apply to unborn children. Our purpose is to have
 RP> legislative and judicial protection of that right against
 RP> those who perform abortions. We oppose using public
 RP> revenues for abortion and will not fund organizations which
 RP> advocate it. We support the appointment of judges who
 RP> respect traditional family values and the sanctity of
 RP> innocent human life. 
 RP> Our goal is to ensure that women with problem pregnancies
 RP> have the kind of support, material and otherwise, they need
 RP> for themselves and for their babies, not to be punitive
 RP> towards those for whose difficult situation we have only
 RP> compassion. We oppose abortion, but our pro-life agenda
 RP> does not include punitive action against women who have an
 RP> abortion. We salute those who provide alternatives to
 RP> abortion and offer adoption services. Republicans in
 RP> Congress took the lead in expanding assistance both for the
 RP> costs of adoption and for the continuing care of adoptive
 RP> children with special needs.  Bill Clinton vetoed our
 RP> adoption tax credit the first time around - and opposed our
 RP> efforts to remove racial barriers to adoption - before
 RP> joining in this long overdue measure of support for
 RP> adoptive families. 
 RP> Worse than that, he vetoed the ban on partial-birth
 RP> abortions, a procedure denounced by a committee of the
 RP> American Medical Association and rightly branded as
 RP> four-fifths infanticide. We applaud Bob Dole's commitment
 RP> to revoke the Clinton executive orders concerning abortion
 RP> and to sign into law an end to partial-birth abortions. 
 RP> Must be that all of that, the first and next to last
 RP> sentences in particular, is just meaningless drivel to be
 RP> tossed aside whenever what it says is politically
 RP> inconvenient, eh? 
Nowhere in the platform you quoted are members of the party
required to ban/oppose those who disagree with the
platform.  
 RP> Pardon me and that upstart "minority faction" for being so
 RP> foolish as to insist the party hold itself and its
 RP> candidates to the principles it claims it stands for. 
Long ago, I found that self-inflicted wounds are generally
poor tactics, not to mention strategy. Yes, we can expel
all those who won't take a loyalty oath - we can also
surrender majority status and sit on the sidelines,
watching the liberals do as they will.
If Republicans are to be a majority party and make any
progress in national politics then there is going to have
to be give-and-take between social conservatives, fiscal
conservatives and mainstream Republicans. 
Much as you dislike the fact, a fiscally conservative,
pro-abortion governor is preferrable to a fiscally liberal,
pro-abortion governor. 
... "Oliver North's Crime?"   "He lied to Teddy Kennedy..."
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