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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2004-09-19

Other Thoughts On The Debate, and The Campaign

Sunday's Denver Post coverage of the Salazar/Coors debate was a bit short, for my taste. It really did not give a very full picture of an hour-long event.

But the coverage did contain this important section:

For the first time in a public debate, Coors and Salazar were asked about abortion. Salazar said he does not personally support abortion, but he would uphold the law under Roe vs. Wade.

"I believe the decision about an abortion should be made between a woman and her God," Salazar said.

Coors, who opposes abortion with "no exceptions," said he too would not try to overturn Roe if elected to the Senate. He also said he would not use abortion as a make-or-break issue when voting in judicial confirmation hearings.

"People ask me if this would be a litmus test for me as to who I would approve as a federal judge," he said. "I don't think there should be one single, specific litmus test."

I also spent some time on Saturday volunteering with the Coors campaign, and the bulk of the time was spent putting out a mailing--a massive mailing. You should be seeing it in the next couple of days. It's slick, it's impressive, it's full color, and it hits all the same notes as the campaign up to this point.

And it says not a word about the judiciary. This, combined with what I gather was a gentle approach to this issue in the debate, is a great disappointment to me. It seems that this is an issue that Coors can run on hard and win with--Salazar, regardless of his personal views, would vote with the Dems to block judicial appointments, then will vote to confirm judges who would enable partial birth abortions, and who would assert a "right" to gay marriage.

The cultural issues underlying this election are all centered in the judiciary, and oversight of the judiciary is one of the unique characteristics of the Senate. This is where the battle should be fought--and won. If we've learned nothing from Missouri and Louisiana, it's that support for these issues is stronger than we tend to think, or tend to be willing to articulate.

cross-posted at Salazar v. Coors

Posted by: Michael / 9/19/2004 11:01:00 PM

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