Obama’s nomination of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) for Secretary of Health and Human Services isn’t making conservative circles happy, and is causing a big headache for Kansas Attorney General Steve Six. Six is currently prosecuting long-time friend of Sebelius, the late-term-abortionist George Tiller for 19 misdemeanor counts of failing to follow Kansas law in properly obtaining second opinions before performing late term abortions. Many Americans see Tiller as the victim of a relentless witch hunt, instigated by then-Kansas Attorney General Phil Kline, a Republican. In 2006 Kline charged Tiller with illegally performing late-term abortions, and after Tiller got the charges dropped due to a technicality about jurisdiction, Kline was raked over the coals for his “anti-women’s health” politics and labeled “The Snoop Dog” by Democrat Paul Morrison.
Interestingly, Morrison was Sebelius’s personal recruit to run against Kline for the office of attorney general. When pro-choice Kansas voters elected Morrison, who favors abortion, they were not expecting him to continue Kline’s “intrusive” investigation of Tiller’s methods, yet in 2007 Morrison himself brought charges against Tiller for repeatedly violating a technical aspect of the 1998 Kansas late-term abortion law. Unfortunately, before Tiller could come to trial, Morrison was accused of sexual harassment by a female subordinate with whom he had had a two-year extramarital affair, and resigned in 2008, forcing Sebelius to find a new democrat, Steve Six, who is reportedly “not excited” about inheriting the trial of “Tiller the Killer.”
Conservatives are not excited about Sebelius’s track record in public office. In 2007 the state of Kansas was both prosecuting Tiller as a criminal, and honoring him as a hero when Sebelius hosted an April banquet in honor of Tiller, 25 friends and abortion clinic employees, and Nebraska partial-birth abortionist LeRoy Carhart at the Governor's mansion (a party which she only ended up paying for after a pro-life group proved it had been thrown at taxpayer expense).
Sebelius, a practicing Catholic, is taking flak for her support of and friendship with the Kansas-based Tiller, who has contributed at least $38,000 to her political campaigns.
Additionally, Gov. Sebelius spots a solid pro-abortion-rights record dating back to her days in the Kansas House of Representatives when she commented, "I think for me and a lot of other people, there are certain inalienable rights established for a person, but those are not applied in utero." As governor, Sebelius reduced state funding for abortion alternatives, vetoed a bill imposing minimal sanitary standards in abortion clinics, and vetoed a bill (which enjoyed a two-thirds majority in both the Kansas House and Senate) strengthening Kansas's parental notification law. She also vetoed a measure requiring explicit medical reasons for late-term abortions, and vetoed a similar measure making abortion providers file a report on diagnoses necessitating post-viability abortions.
These controversial issues have gone virtually unreported by mainstream media. The NY Times hasn't mentioned Sebelius/Tiller other than an editorial lauding Tiller as a women's rights champion. Associated Press left out Sebelius in its story on Tiller in which it referred to his current trial (opening arguments begin March 23) as a "witch hunt." Mute on the evidence that Tiller had a suspect financial relationship with the "independent" doctor providing second opinions on the validity of Tiller's late term abortions.
The question is whether Sebelius will attempt to distance herself from Tiller. Her own archbishop, Joseph Naumann, opposes her appointment to the HHR position, and has recommended that she not present herself for communion. However, progressive Catholic organizations like Catholics United, defend Sebelius on the basis of declining abortion rates in Kansas; numbers based on unreliable and unclear research according to Dr. New of the University of Alabama.
Is there any chance of Obama distancing himself from Sebelius? No date for her Senate hearings has been set, but Catholic League president Bill Donahue noted upon Sebelius' nomination that almost every Obama appointee is pro-abortion. He suggests that her confirmation would create "a battle between those Catholics who are honestly pro-life, and those who feign a pro-life position while always embracing the likes of Sebelius."
3/16/09 - After former Vice President Dick Cheney suggested the Obama administration was trying to “take advantage” of the economic crisis, press secretary Robert Gibbs used time during Monday’s White House briefing to label Cheney a part of the “Republican cabal,” comparing him to Rush Limbaugh. Gibbs told America the she is better off ignoring Cheney’s economic advice.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20073.html
3/16/09 - U.S. intelligence analysts and outside experts testified before the House and Senate Armed Services committees that the global economic downturn has affected America’s allies. Dov Zakheim, a former Pentagon comptroller, said “Economic constraints have at times been an excuse for allies not to do more for the common defense of the West [and now] that excuse is being buttressed by reality.” Experts fear that financial setbacks in the U.S. will lead to security breaches in Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://armytimes.com/news/2009/03/military_threats_financialcrisis_031609w/