Abortion Debate Could Split Democrat Congressional Leaders
Nathan Burchfiel, CNSNews.com
Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2004
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, about to assume the Democrats' top Senate leadership post, differs from his party's other congressional leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, on abortion.
Abortion is likely to dominate the debate over President Bush's judicial nominations in the 109th Congress, especially because the president could end up making one or more U.S. Supreme Court nominations.
The appointment of more conservatives on the Supreme Court increases the chance that Roe vs. Wade, the court's ruling in 1973 that legalized abortion, will be overturned.
NARAL Pro-Choice America's 2003 congressional scorecard gives Pelosi a 100 percent rating, meaning that she voted to support abortion every chance she had.
But Reid received only a 29 percent rating from NARAL because on four occasions he voted to ban partial-birth abortion, and he rejected an attempt to change the law prohibiting military personnel and their dependents from obtaining privately funded abortions at overseas military hospitals.
The man Reid will replace as Senate Minority Leader, South Dakota's Tom Daschle, received a 50 percent rating on NARAL's scorecard. Republican John Thune defeated Daschle in the Nov. 2 election.
National Journal, in its own scorecard for members of Congress, gave Pelosi an 89 percent liberal rating on social issues, while Reid got only a 58 percent liberal score on social issues.
Nevertheless, upon hearing that Senate Democrats had chosen Reid to be their new leader, Pelosi hailed the Nevadan as "an outstanding choice." Reid's "deep commitment to the core values of our party," Pelosi said, "is matched only by his legislative brilliance."
Reid No 'Threat' to the Left
Michael Franc of the conservative Heritage Foundation said it was unlikely that Reid, as Senate minority leader, would alter the Democratic Party's congressional agenda, much of which involved blocking President Bush's judicial selections over the last two years.
"Clearly he had to pass the Ted Kennedy test, he had to pass the Robert Byrd test ... and so on," Franc said. "These individual senators who feel passionately about these issues do not see Sen. Reid as any threat to their work.
"The test there," he said, "is what lessons did the Democratic Caucus as a whole take from Daschle's defeat. If they can rationalize to themselves that his loss has nothing to do with blocking and obstructing judges then they will behave the same way."
But if Daschle's defeat is viewed as a "political referendum on the obstructionist strategy, then he may be a little more cautious about picking his fights," Franc said. He said it was too early to tell how Democrats were interpreting Daschle's loss.
Bill Frenzel, a guest scholar at Brookings Institution and a former Republican congressman from Minnesota, said Reid's election might produce a different Democrat strategy, simply because the number of Senate Republicans will have increased from 51 to 55 in January.
Reid "will be less eager than Daschle to take on Bush on nominees, and he'll be practical about it because his caucus won't have quite as many votes as they had when Daschle was leading," Frenzel said.
A middle-of-the-road political approach by Reid might also become more important as the 2006 congressional elections approach, Frenzel added. "As the Democrats get closer to the next election, they may come to the conclusion ... that they have to move a bit toward the center. If so, they will find that they have the perfect leader selected to help them get there."
Representatives from Reid's office did not return calls requesting comment for this report.
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