Illinois NOW Tries to Lie It’s Way Out
Here’s Gay Bruhn’s claim about the present votes:
Sorry — That’s not record for the bills we are questioning. Look up SB1094, SB1095, and SB1096 also known as the born alive bills.
This is quite funny given Illinois NOW had this up on their web site.:
Obama Was Present, But He Was Not There On Issues That Mattered to Illinois Women
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March 28, 2007, the National Organization for Women Political Action Committee, NOW PAC, announced its endorsement of Hillary Clinton for President (see article below).
Illinois NOW PAC supported the endorsement of Senator Clinton. “She is, after all, our native sister,” said Bonnie Grabenhofer, president of Illinois NOW. “We know from her record and in her heart she will be there for us.”
Senator Clinton has a long history of support for women’s empowerment, and her public record is a testimony to her leadership on issues important to women in the U.S. and around the globe. She has eloquently articulated the need for full economic, political and social equality for women in every institution of society, taking action throughout her career — as a lawyer, community leader, First Lady, Senator and candidate for the presidency — to advance the civil and human rights of women and girls.
After looking at his record, Grabenhofer does not feel the same way about Illinois Senator Barack Obama.
During Senator Obama’s 2004 senate campaign, the Illinois NOW PAC did not recommend the endorsement of Obama for U.S. Senate because he refused to stand up for a woman’s right to choose and repeatedly voted ‘present’ on important legislation.
As a State Senator, Barack Obama voted ‘present’ on seven abortion bills, including a ban on ‘partial birth abortion,’ two parental notification laws and three ‘born alive’ bills. In each case, the right vote was clear, but Senator Obama chose political cover over standing and fighting for his convictions.
“When we needed someone to take a stand, Senator Obama took a pass,” said Grabenhofer. “He wasn’t there for us then and we don’t expect him to be now.”
For more information on the endorsement go to www.nowpac.org ++
So Bruhn identified three Born Alive Protection Act votes, but didn’t mention the two parental notification bills and 2 late term abortion bills. Perhaps she’d like to explain what the parental notification bills Illinois NOW identified in the press release are different from SB 562 in which Lisa Madigan voted present as well.
Of course, the entire response did not respond to Lisa Madigan who agreed the strategy was used and supported it.
It also ignores that Obama refused to even call the Born Alive Protection Act while he was Committee Chair after 2002 and so effectively killed the bill by himself.
Seriously, you have tried this canard for 4 years. And you still cannot get the story straight.
February 2nd, 2008 at
I remember when Blair Hull tried to raise this issue against Obama. One the interesting things, though, is that Obama was the only Senator opposed to the bill to take part in the (It starts on page 84.)
One thing to remember about the Illinois “born-alive” bills is that they followed on the heals of federal legislation that basically made the same provisions. The federal Born Alive Infant Protection Act (H.R. 2175, 107th Congress) passed the Senate by , which means that Senator Hillary Clinton made no objection to the bill either. And, unlike a “present” vote in the Illinois General Assembly, failing to object to unanimous consent means that the bill gets passed — with Clinton’s support.
February 2nd, 2008 at
Take part in the debate, I meant to say.
And I totally screwed up my HTML. The first link is to the debate transcript; the very last part of the link is to the Thomas summary of congressional debate.
February 2nd, 2008 at
Don’t you get it yet.. NOW will reamin silent when a woman does what they criticize a man for because she is a woman. And yet they are not sexist.
February 2nd, 2008 at
qwerty – I’m sure gbruhn will jump quickly into this thread just as in the last one and clarify for you…
Obviously you must be looking at “different lists,” since we have been so forcefully informed that in gbrun’s fantasy world, women “NEVER” do such things.
I’m still waiting breathlessly for gbrun’s clarifications.