Chichester and Pro-Life Activists

Want to know how much trouble Chichester is in with the rank-and-file Republicans in the 28th? Here is an excellent letter from Mary Walsh explaining just that:

Last year in the 2002 session, parental consent remained bottlenecked in the Senate Education and Health Committee, 7-7, while Sen. Chichester, the deciding vote, played hooky. Del. Black hand-delivered a letter to Sen. Chichester on the floor of the Senate urging him to break the tie vote. If the senator did not come, parental-consent legislation would die. Sen. Chichester neither came to break the impasse, nor did he send a proxy.

Virginians need trustworthy conservative leadership they can count on regardless of the election cycle. That, Mr. Speaker, is why it’s time to elect Mike Rothfeld.

Mary is right. For as often as I hear from Richmond about the importance of “the Catholic Vote” in Virginia, when folks come out and rail against pro-life activists as “goofballs” as Chichester has done, you have a problem.

As a Catholic, I am invariably pro-life. That belief applies to much more than abortion. It applies to my stance on the environment, taxation on lower-income households, social programs, labor unions, and a host of other issues. That abortion is currently the best vent for the beliefs of 60 million Catholics shouldn’t shock anyone. But to describe pro-life efforts as the result of “goofball” politics? No small wonder why Mike Rothfeld is getting all the support he is getting in the 28th.