Women, Who make up the Majority of the Democratic Party, are being Stabbed in the back, by a Few Senate Leaders, a Governor and a whole bunch of spineless Women's Organizations.
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Women, Who make up the Majority of the Democratic Party, are being Stabbed in the back, by a Few Senate Leaders, a Governor and a whole bunch of spineless Women's Organizations.
Democratic women are about to be stabbed in the back. It started out as a plan by Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid and Ed Rendell. They saw that Bob Casey, jr., son of a former PA governor, polled well against Santorum. So they made up their minds that THEY would decide who would be the Democratic candidate to run in the 2006 PA senate race.
There's one problem with that. Casey, like his father, is anti-abortion, anti-embryonic stemcell. That's a big problem. This race will be the most closely watched election in the nation. The right wing democrats who have been sabotaging the integrity, values and leadership of the Democratic party are dying to claim that a Casey win proves that the way for Democrats to win is to oppose abortion-- to oppose the woman's right that was fought for for decades.
If Casey wins, this could be the most damaging, most devastating thing to impact upon women's rights in decades. It could be, and will be horrible.
It doesn't matter that Santorum is a loser, than any decent candidate can kick his butt, including good candidates who back women's rights.
It doesn't matter that Casey has a track record of having a big lead and then losing in a competitive race.
It doesn't matter that the choice of Casey in this race has put women's rights on the line.
Regardless, some of the biggest names in the Democratic side of the senate have come to PA to support and raise money for Casey-- Hillary, Barrack, John Kerry. They're all doing their share of the effort to sabotage the rights of women.
Now here's what I don't understand. The women's rights advocacy groups appear to be doing nothing. Like Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, they are hoping that Casey will not screw them, even though he has already said that he supported Alito. It's hard to understand why they have not spoken out against Casey and for either one of the two pro-women's right candidates who are running. I'm supporting one of those candidates-- Chuck Pennacchio-- because I desperately, passionately, intensely, teeth grittingly want to get rid of Rick Santorum and I don't think Casey can or will do it. I think Pennacchio has a much better shot.
I don't understand why the women's organizations-- National organization of Women N.O.W. or NARAL are not out there, telling their members in PA and all over the USA and the world to contribute to Pennacchio's campaign. I don't understand why these women's organizations aren't telling Rendell and Schumen and the DSCC (democratic campaign committee) how they are outraged that they would even consider betraying women, who make up over 60% of the Democratic party in PA, by running a candidate who doesn't fully support women's rights.
But then again, PA is a bit of a backward state. Remember, over 60%-- actually, in our poll, 64% of Democrats-- are women in PA. Yet there is only one candidate running for the whole PA senate who is a woman. Do you get the feeling that there is something wrong with the Democratic leadership in PA, like maybe, the old guys who have been running it, screwing it up, failing to build a winning team, failing to elect a US senator in a routine election in 44 years, should be replaced-- that new blood should be taking over the PA Democratic party? But I digress.
Where the hell is NARAL President Nancy Keenan, or NOW prresident Kim Gandy? Why aren't they beating the bushes for support for Pennacchio? If Pennacchio beats Casey in the primary, in spite of the support from the meddlling outside state senators, he'll be on the cover of every news magazine and in a position to raise millions. These women must be very confused or deluded if they're fantasizing that life will be better without Santorum. These leaders of women's organizations are failing the people who fund their organizations by failing to flat out oppose Casey. Maybe they are colluding with and making deals with the senators who "annointed" Casey. Maybe they are fooling themselves into thinking they can cut some kind of deal that will make up for remaining silent, allowing Casey to win the primary so he can go on to face Santorum.
Bad move. Bad thinking, Bad strategizing. Maybe these organizations are due to be replaced, or at least the leaders should be replaced. The Women in PA need to get together, and they better do it fast, since the women's organizations in place are totally failing them. They women better get organized and fight Casey with tooth and nail. But it's not just PA.
The Democrats who are willing to sell out by supporting an anti-women's rights candidate (and don't dare quibble that outside of women having the right to control their bodies, Casey's okay. That is the main right!!) will be happy to adopt a POLICY of selecting candidates who take t the position that they oppose abortion, if Casey wins.
This is the test case. This is what sell-out senators from other states are helping to raise milliions of dollars to push through.
I'm writing this article, listing organizations and names because I'm hoping that readers will write to the leaders of these national organizations and their PA affiliates to shame them, to demand that they get off their butts and do something.
The PA primary is in May. There's not a lot of time.
There are a lot of good reasons besides his stand on women's rights to support Pennacchio. He's an extraordinary candidate who will join the ranks of Russ Feingold and John Conyers, who has the potential to become another Paul Wellstone.
By the way, Casey's bad for a lot of other reasons besides his position on human rights. There's a long list of issue positions where Casey looks just like Santorum. Santorum will use this to hold on to the people who might be swayed to Casey, because Santorum is the real conservative, Casey's a fake. Then there's the matter of PAC money. Casey has accepted money from over 100 PACs that have also given to Santorum. Who will he be owing if he wins the senate race? The same people as Santorum!!
It's not surprising that the good 'ol boys among the senate Democrats are betraying the women of the Democratic party. But it is inexcusable that the leaders of the Women's organizations are allowing this to happen. Send them empty envelopes and give them hell. Maybe they'll get started. It's not too late to turn this potential disaster around. Better yet, no matter what state you are in, send them envelopes with photocopies of checks you've contributed to Pennacchio. Show them that you're doing what they should be doing. Supporting the candidate who can move women's rights forward, not backwards.
Authors Bio:
Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.
He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com
more detailed bio:
Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.
To watch Rob having a lively conversation with John Conyers, then Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here. Watch Rob speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.