I'm not precisely sure why NARAL wants to destroy their organization's good name, but after endorsing Chafee (who subsequently voted for cloture -- and thus effectively guaranteed confirmation -- on Alito), it now looks like Kate Michelman, the organization's past-president, is thinking about guaranteeing Santorum's reelection.
Although Michelman said in an interview with MSNBC.com Monday she had not yet made up her mind about running, she reported that her colleagues in the abortion rights movement are urging her to get in the race so that she could offer a pro-Roe alternative to the two anti-Roe candidates, Santorum and Casey.
Michelman is conferring with Democratic pollster Harrison Hickman and other strategists and will make her decision in the next two weeks.
It's not that I don't see why Michelman and others are pissed off at Casey's candidacy. I do. But the fact of it is, a single senator can do virtually no damage to Roe, while a Democratic Senate can, and will, do much to protect it. Killing Casey's candidacy merely ensures one more vote -- an anti-choice vote, at that -- for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Maybe Michelman thinks making a point is worth perpetuating the Republican majority. Maybe she thinks the profession of support for Roe is more important than its protection. Maybe she should ask Ralph Nader how far that kind of thinking takes you.
