Conservatives Groan About Debates
W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 7 -- Texas Gov. George W. Bush has lavished running mate Dick Cheney with praise for his debate performance, even as rumblings from conservatives offered a much different view of the former defense secretary’s face-off against Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joseph Lieberman.
What ruffled some on the Republican right were comments from the GOP ticket’s No. 2 man on two hot-button social issues: The recently approved abortion pill, RU-486 and civil rights for homosexuals.
Asked whether he supported House Republican efforts to restrict distribution of RU-486, Cheney began by echoing comments Bush made in Tuesday’s first presidential debate. If elected, Bush had said, there would be nothing he could do to reverse the FDA’s approval of the drug.
“I haven’t looked in particular at that particular piece of legislation,” Cheney said in the vice-presidental debate.
The comments seemed to represent backpedaling from a campaign that had signaled that if Congress passed a bill overriding the FDA’s decision to legalize the abortion pill, Bush would probably sign it.
But their failure to make a firm pledge to overturn the FDA ruling raised the ire of some longtime “pro-life” activists, like Republican National Coaltion for Life’s Colleen Parro.
Parro says she received a message from a friend in Austin who is an ”active” Republican saying, “I just don’t see how pro-life people can stay in the Republican Party. These people have no intention of committing to do anything to protecting the lives of these babies.”
GOP’s Commitment Questioned
As for Bush’s assertion that there is nothing to be done now that the pill is approved, Parro said, “I can’t believe he doesn’t know the powers of the presidency when it comes to federal agencies so I just have to think he avoided it … If it is not ignorance, it is devious.”
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