Sen. Barack Obama is not mincing words when it comes to distortions anti-choice lobbyists from the National Right to Life Committee and others are making about his record in the Illinois Senate. The following is from an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody:
Brody: Real quick, the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. I gotta tell you that's the one thing I get a lot of emails about and it's just not just from Evangelicals, it about Catholics, Protestants, main -- they're trying to understand it because there was some literature put out by the National Right to Life Committee. And they're basically saying they felt like you misrepresented your position on that bill.
Obama: Let me clarify this right now.
Brody: Because it's getting a lot of play.
Obama: Well and because they have not been telling the truth. And I hate to say that people are lying, but here's a situation where folks are lying. I have said repeatedly that I would have been completely in, fully in support of the federal bill that everybody supported - which was to say --that you should provide assistance to any infant that was born - even if it was as a consequence of an induced abortion. That was not the bill that was presented at the state level. What that bill also was doing was trying to undermine Roe vs. Wade. By the way, we also had a bill, a law already in place in Illinois that insured life saving treatment was given to infants.
So for people to suggest that I and the Illinois medical society, so Illinois doctors were somehow in favor of withholding life saving support from an infant born alive is ridiculous. It defies commonsense and it defies imagination and for people to keep on pushing this is offensive and it's an example of the kind of politics that we have to get beyond. It's one thing for people to disagree with me about the issue of choice, it's another thing for people to out and out misrepresent my positions repeatedly, even after they know that they're wrong. And that's what's been happening.
Brody: I wanted to give you a chance to clear it up.
Obama: I appreciate it.
Brody: Thank you so much.
ABC's Jake Tapper reminds readers of his blog, Political Punch, that this story has been floating around for quite some time. It was even a source of concern, for different reasons, for some Democratic voters in the heated primary against Sen. Clinton.
So why is it getting such heated attention now? Jerome Corsi's recently released, and widely discredited, book once again fans the flame of the lie, is one reason. Another is that the anti-choice community elevated the issue right before the Saddleback Forum to intensify focus on abortion with increased evidence that Obama is leading in the polls among all faith groups except Evangelicals, where he is expected to do better than other recent Democratic Presidential candidates.
In fact these same issues were raised in his race for the Senate in Illinois, and voters there heard the charges, looked at the facts, then voted to send him to Washington.
The Associated Press is also reporting that another anti-choice political action committee is planning a major ad campaign against him on abortion issues but fears;
"they will be prosecuted for breaking federal rules that restrict fundraising and advertising by political action committees, or PACs. The Real Truth About Obama wants to post ads on its Web site and on the Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity talk shows in key states during the "electioneering communication" blackout period 60 days before the general election. The ad features an "Obama-like voice" saying he would make taxpayers pay for all abortions, ensure minors' abortions are concealed from their parents, appoint more liberal Supreme Court justices and legalize the late-term procedure that abortion opponents call "partial-birth" abortion.
As Sen. Obama said at the Saddleback Forum, there are some issues on which we cannot argue, "because that is a core issue of faith for you", or as Pastor Warren said, we should be able to "disagree without demonizing."
Obama's strong statement is not likely to quiet lobbyists who want to use the most extreme language on the most extreme issues to distort reality, but then again, these are the same people who won't tell you that they want to outlaw contraception as much as they want to outlaw abortion. They know they can't win the contraception argument so they get people to focus on abortion, and on the most extreme aspects of that, while moving an anti-contraception agenda quietly in the Bush Administration.
