
I have to say I just do not understand this. Fred Vincy did some digging in Lexis/Nexis and found some information on Nancy Keenan's background not available on the web (from a January 1, 1990 Boston Globe article):
For many public officials, personal conviction that abortion is wrong does not extend to public responsibility. "As a Catholic, I accept the teaching of my church on abortion. That is my personal religious belief . . . As a public official, there is no question in my mind that depriving women of the right to follow their conscience is the same as imposing religious beliefs," Montana's school superintendent, Nancy Keenan, said in a Dec. 5 letter when questioned by her bishop.
Now I respect people who believe that their personal religious views should not become the basis for law, and who nonetheless respect the individual's right to make their own decisions regarding their bodies. But after yesterday's weird decision by Keenan (contra Planned Parenthood) not to challenge Brownback's fetal anesthesia bill, it's worth thinking about the wisdom of hiring someone to head an organization who believes that the right she is tasked with defending is a mortal sin.
As Amanda Marcotte says:
See, philosophically and logically, the right to an abortion is based in the right to your bodily autonomy. However, on the political side, a lot of Americans are swayed by a combination of uneasiness with sex, sexism, and religious belief to be more fascinated by the red herring discussion of when life begins. Which means that whoever is going to be in leadership positions in the abortion rights leadership needs to be firmly committed to opposing all attempts to define fetuses as some sort of pseudo-citizens, in that they don’t have names or rights, except the one right no real citizen has, which is the right to commandeer another person’s body for your sustenance against their will.
Over at Brendan Calling, Brendan Skwire also writes about his email exchange with Carolyn Treiss of CT-NARAL, in which she expresses a whole lot of frustration with the national PAC's endorsement of Joe Lieberman (totally undermining everything that Treiss and others in Connecticut were doing to get Plan B contraception mandated in publicly funded hospitals).
Writes Treiss:
Of course NARAL Pro-Choice America is not going to publicize the fact that the state affiliate doesn’t agree with their endorsement. It undermines their credibility and ability to raise money. We also disagree with their endorsements in the Murphy/Johnson and Simmons/Courtney Congressional races, but they don’t tell you that either.
Unhappiness with Nancy Keenan's leadership, or lack thereof, does not seem to be limited to the blogosphere. There is something very wrong about this woman being the head of the most prominent pro-choice rights group in the country, and more and more people seem to be coming to the same conclusion.
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Fitz
Fitz, Dammit.
notimetowaste -
I guess not. Dammit.
So, how does one come to be the leader of NARAL? Is she elected? Appointed? By whom?
yeah there’s somethin odd about sayin:
“I consider this a mortal sin but I’ve made access to it my life’s work..”
OT — Mrs. K8, if you come by, I left you a blockquote and a better link at the end of the last post.
Hmmm.
How long has Keenan been in this position? And who suggested her?
Is this like the attempt to turn the Air Force into a wingnut theocratic institution by undermining it from within?
Fer cryin’ out loud. What have we come to when we have to start suspecting every major institution of having been infiltrated by people employing all manner of spy-ops?
Mike Barnacle/Hardball showed clip of Baker interview - “can bush turn180degrees?” “pres have turned 180 before. bush wants to do this in a bipartisan manner and this is the vehicle to do that.”
oh, and he also said bush was conflicted.
Oh- I thought he said AFFlicted.
Individual women do not need me, a man, or for that matter another woman, dictating what she can do with her body in respect to abortion.
Kathryn in MA @ 9
As if we give a hoot in hell for Dubya’s personal angst about this!
Oklahoma kiddo @ 11
Period.
The leader of NARAL who once made a public statement that she personally accepts the Catholic Church’s “teachings” on abortion.
Very helpful to know.
I wonder how many NARAL donors are aware of this?
I had been really struggling to understand what could possibly explain NARAL’s positions on Lieberman, Chafee, and the fetal pain bill.
What were NARAL’s motives?
We may be moving a bit closer to answering this question.
OK, so does she have a problem defending choice? If so, why is she the head of a pro-choice organization?
Obviously there is a lot more to educate about and defend than the single issue of whether abortion is legal or not. It becomes a grand exercise in self deception when the appropriateness for having a large responsibility covering diverse but contiguous issues is justified by one’s stance on one point to the exclusion of the rest.
I had said that Keenan was probably a devout Catholic and defending her deep convictions to my female friends in CT when the Lieberman thingie came up– I was shot down.
heh, and thanks Jane.
I do respect religious rights and opinions, but HELLO?!
Olbermann: The Iraq report is “all things to all people”. I’m so damn sick of this political s’t.
Mario Cuomo voiced almost exactly the same thing in a speech at Notre Dame back in the 1980s, and I’d guess Keenan quoted/paraphrased him in her letter above. In Cuomo’s view (and the view of other Catholics who defend pro-choice laws), the question of a woman having the right to make personal decisions about her own body is just as much a religious question as the one of abortion.
How someone balances these two competing religious questions is what this comes down to. Some Catholics make the argument that a man forcing a woman to bear a child that could endanger her own health, make bearing future children impossible, or was the product of rape is a mortal sin as well.
So, which mortal sin are you willing to support as public policy, and which do you fight against?
It seems Cuomo was consistent in his answer, but apparently Nancy is not.
Linda –
Thanks, sweetie!
I’m enjoying the comments left there, too. Very interesting. Seems there are still some raw memories of the Molly Maguires.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 11
Agreed! But looks like there is work to be done in the area of keeping other folks from trying to do so. And NARAL endorsements do help candidates get elected. I’m sure lots of women my age felt reassured by NARAL’s endorsement of Rape Gurney Joe.
As in every other arena, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance — which reminds me, thank you, O Great and Invisible Mod(s).
Ok, off to see Keith now. I love Keith!
*xyz @
14
I think we may be.
Whoa!! Baker just said we talk to our enemies!! just as we did for 40 years with the USSR!
Kathryn in MA @ 24
Stand by for another Rick Santorum conniption.
My stepmother (nearly 70) is a life-long, rock-ribbed Republican. However, she has always been a proponent of choice. Why? Because her own mother nearly died from a back-alley abortion when my step was an adolescent in the early ’50s.
You can file this one under “Republicans Are Blind to Other People’s Problems Until it Touches Their Own Lives.” (A thick file, I know.)
Jim Baker is a …
She couldn’t endorse LIEberman on her own could she? Isn’t there some type of board that votes on those type of things? If so then keenan has some supporter at naral-America who are helping her undermine pro-choice positions.
Watching KO.
I’m loving David Gregory more and more every day.
Olbermann is doing some very heavy lifting. As usual. Olbermann and Jimmy Carter, hoisting dump trucks.
Snow saying this is not a repudiation of Bushes policy.
RevDeb @ 29
and hating Tony Snow more in much the same way.
RevDeb @ 29
Gregory kicking major a’s.
Richard Wolffe on Countdown saying the White House is going to put the Baker report on the shelf and it is going to gather a lot of dust.
Snow tripping over his nose.
jayt @ 32
Never liked Snow to begin with.
Saving my major contempt for LIEberman as is punaise et al.
LOL! KO saying this a la carte pickings may not meet your nutritional needs.
The “fetal pain” issue is such utter crap. But then, I believe completely in a person’s right to control her own body. Even if a fetus has full consciousness, I think a woman has the right to refuse service.
Can someone explain to me in simple terms why it’s right for Israel to engage in nuclear enrichment, but for Iran it’s not?
a pre-emptive: Feingold!!!
KO finishes with
“Much ado about nothing.”
Russ coming up next followed by Thomas Ricks and later a segment about Preggers Mary Cheney.
More fun to come!
Jane,
Thank you for putting the big picture together from a bunch of tiny pieces. I don’t know how you do it but you must have an Army of people sending you info and then I don’t know how you sift through all of the pieces to put out what you do. It’s simply amazing.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 39
Iran didn’t buy their stuff from the right people - er, us.
RevDeb @ 29
He reminds me a bit of Dan Rather when he was White House correspondent during Watergate.
jayt @ 43
Yes, they did.
Halliburton sold some dual-use equipment to Iran. But you don’t hear much about that, now do you?
Kinda like selling stuff to Saddam, for which we then attack him.
It’s quite the scam.
RevDeb @ 41
I can hardly wait through the commercial break…
Yes, my KO is back! : )
Kathryn in MA @ 31
This statement has to be the single most astounding display of naked chutzpah yet uttered by any of Bush’s three press secretaries. The report is precisely a repudiation of Bush’s policies. The only honest accompaniment to its conclusion that those policies have failed in every way would be to state that they never had any possibility to succeed in the first place. Tony Snow is an idiot, a baldfaced liar, or (quite possibly) both.
Al Qaida now a franchise in Iraq, like McDonalds. - an Iraqi
Yay– Feingold calls the ISG an inside job.
No opponents to the war interviewed.
Russ: This is really a Washington inside job…It shows in the recommendations. It’s been called a classic Washington compromise…This report does not do the job.
angie @
17
Good call angie, you were right.
RUSS KICKING ASS, BIG TIME
Washington inside job. Classic Washington compromise
FEINGOLD!!
“This report does not do the job…”
Finegold - classic Washington compromise -does not do the job -
Feingold on Olbermann doing the work. I like this guy Feingold. Big time!
Russ: This report keeps us in Iraq.
lisadawn82 @
42
Thanks to Brendan and to Fred, both of whom contacted me. They did the legwork.
Always good to have smart, strong men on your side.
“This report keeps us in Iraq…
And we’re losing ground to the Taliban in Afghanistan.”
True, Russ…
He’s got a point there.
I am SO pissed at Russ for deciding not to run for Pres.
“Hand across the water (water)
Heads across the sky“
“When you commit a mistake, you’ve got to stop making the mistake.”
Right again, Russ.
How many more troops are we going to lose? when we have determined we have made a mistake, we should stop making the mistake.
Feingold for Secretary of State. In ‘08.
Feingold saying the ISG did not solve the problem of redirecting our resources to fight the real (non-Iraq)global war on terror.
thanks, Jane. I have been hesitant to even broach the subject here and in other public forums b/c of obvious reasons– up to and including no real confirmation, just a gut feeling.
You do very important work, thank you and all of FDL very much.
;)
We need a real timetable to get out.
Russ:
The American people “want us out of Iraq now, and they are right.”
RevDeb @ 59
I’m of two minds about it. I like Feingold’s politics, and I like his candor. I would certainly be willing to vote for him for president.On the other hand, President Feingold would mean no Senator Feingold holding some feet to the fire that much need the heating.
I’d be really surprised if Keith doesn’t do a “special commentary” in the next couple of days re the ISG report.
KO: Have the violent conditions on the ground already rendered the recommendations irrelevant?
Hell, yeah.
There’s Feingold. And there’s Hillary.
RevDeb @ 59
I’m disappointed too - but he *will* be geat heading the sub-committee on constitutional issues. (oh, the hearings….). I’m almost salivating.
Kathryn in MA @ 66
YES! Now will our Dems act?
jayt @ 72
Babs Comstock is setting up shop to come to the rescue of beleaguered repigs as they are about to be eviscerated by Russ et al. Great story.
RevDeb @ 69
Yes.
Although it’ll be more like a special comment on Junior’s OBSTINACY regarding the ISG report.
OT: Barney Frank is large and in charge!
Frank also wants legislation dealing with predatory lending, the mortgage industry, foreign investment, and affordable housing.
Let the red-baiting begin!
spray on condoms on KO.
LOL!
Kathryn in MA @
66
On the last thread, Hugh posted this:
On pages 62-63 of the ISG report is a list of the milestones. This is a timetable whatever it is called and may be the most important part of the document because it gives dates.
NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
By the end of 2006–early 2007:
Approval of the Provincial Election Law and setting an
election date
Approval of the Petroleum Law
Approval of the De-Baathification Law
Approval of the Militia Law
By March 2007:
A referendum on constitutional amendments (if it is necessary)
By May 2007:
Completion of Militia Law implementation
Approval of amnesty agreement
Completion of reconciliation efforts
By June 2007:
Provincial elections
SECURITY (pending joint U.S.-Iraqi review)
By the end of 2006:
Iraqi increase of 2007 security spending over 2006 levels
By April 2007:
Iraqi control of the Army
By September 2007:
Iraqi control of provinces
By December 2007:
Iraqi security self-reliance (with U.S. support)
GOVERNANCE
By the end of 2006:
The Central Bank of Iraq will raise interest rates to 20
percent and appreciate the Iraqi dinar by 10 percent to
combat accelerating inflation.
Iraq will continue increasing domestic prices for refined petroleum
products and sell imported fuel at market prices.
KO notes that the IGS report took 9 mos to complete - is it out of date already?
angie @ 76
I hope Amato grabs that segment for C&L. It’s a keeper.
angie @ 76
Yikes! I read about ‘em, but the visual is far worse the anything I could imagine.
Love the fact that they displayed THREE sizes of members, though!
SO how does the head of NARAL get appointed? did i miss that in the comments? And who VETTED her?
nadine
And then…
SWORD-SWALLOWERS!!!
lol!!!
Donning tin-foil hat, why does it not surprise me that Repug Fundies target national institutions for their own insidious purposes?
To wit:
The Presidency.
The Congress.
The Supreme Court.
All Federal Courts.
And all other Federal institutions (FDA, FTC, FCC, Federal Reserve, World Bank, SEC, etc.)
They are everywhere. They may be the man or woman approaching you on the street. They hide in plain sight. They look like you and I. You’ll never notice the danger you’re in until it is too late.
Why would NARAL be different?
Repug Fundy Commandment # 1: Bore deeply into all structures of power and destroy these institutions from within.
/only slightly snarked
angie @ 76
The colors, oh, the colors!
and they are so blue, too!
wow wee!
angie @ 85
yep, they can’t keep them up long enough in red country.
nrl @ 81
Yup, that’s what I want to know. I’m certain she’s not the only one.
Seriously, there are folks undermining all sorts of institutions and organizations in this country, in the same manner that our intelligence folks have been doing to organizations in foreign countries.
Infiltrating and undermining from within.
It’s creepy, has lots of awful implications — and needs to be dealt with somehow.
RevDeb @ 86
707!
Oklahoma kiddo @ 39
Papal dispensation given to certain “friendly” other-believers?
Yes, Mad Dogs! You get it. That’s precisely my point. We have to figure out how to deal with this sort of thing.
They’ve gone all spy-ops on us.
angie @ 85
I see potential size issues arising over volume, “I need the 8 oz. spray bottle.”
“Yes, well I’m not covered by anything less than 10 oz.”
“Well, sure, if you’re going to go with three coats!”
Love the fact that they displayed THREE sizes of members, though!
Shouldn’t the biggest wooden phallus been made of mahogany?
johnSwifty @ 92
ha!
buuut, wait– If you order now we’ll send you 2, that’s right, 2 full 32 oz bottles for the same price and you’ll never have to order the clapper!
* plus, the big bottles will looky very nice in your pocket to your date.
Heh. A serious thread hijacked by “Oddball.”
It’s still about choice though, neurophius!
neurophius @ 94
Oddballs?
I will do everything I can, no matter how small, to help deny the 2008 Democratic nomination to Senator Hillary Clinton for president of the United States. Unless the Senator changes her views on pulling out of Iraq.
From a summary of Ms. Keenan’s history from the NARAL site:
Meet Our President
(emphasis mine)
But then I found this: Guide to Political Left which appears to be a rightwing site designed to keep track of folks they perceive as left wing, like Ramsey Clark.
And here’s another version from what appears to be a conservative religious site
except that…. there is so much biological evidence that a person is NOT created at conception that it boggles the mind that we’re even still debating it. yeah well… we’re still debating evolution and global warming - so what the hell do i know. but if keenan does believe that a human life begins at conception (as it looks like she may), then having her running NARAL is like having senator inhofe in charge of lobbying for limiting CO2 emissions.
neurophius @ 94
It’s just an attempt to follow the format pioneered by KO, with extras!
Out of order, though. We started with a candidate for Worst Person In the World.
I am a Catholic. I believe strongly in a woman’s choice to have or not to have an abortion.
Amato’s working on the Feingold clip.
BillO wins Worst Person in the World yet again.
Jane Hamsher @ 102
Excellent.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 102
and so do many Catholics that I know.
But there are still some that cannot shake the Church’s edicts deep down and that may be as it should be, but they should not preach what they don’t believe deep down.
(you’re a peach, though and in many ways, teacher!)
Amato’s a treasure, too.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 101
Then you are an intelligent person, first, above all. And, I like to think that if there is a divine essence in the universe; it loves and respects that trait above all other things human.
Don’t know what is up with the comments, but she should resign. She clearly doesn’t understand the mission and has an ethical dissonance with this particular proposed law.
Bye bye. We don’t need people who don’t believe in the cause working for it. Period.
Jane Hamsher @ 103
from cableless land - a big thank you to john!
Don’t know about Keenan and how her religion plays into her work, but we can’t lump all Catholics together. Catholics for Free Choice is doing lots of the heavy lifting in fighting the Vatican on this issue. They are well funded and well organized. They are also part of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. There are lots of reasons to dump on Keenan for what she has done. I don’t know that her being a Catholic is one of them.
Obviously, a Catholic (procreation without birth control) is not the best choice to be the head of NARAL. She should never have received/accepted the position if it conflicted with her personal views (it did/does). Nancy Keenan has conflicting views that have been costly for and have compromised womens’ rights. She must be replaced asap for the sake of naral.
Mrs. K8 what did you do to the comments…he he.
Oops. Jane, you’ve got Brendan Skwire’s name in the post as Brendan Keenan.
[Mod Note; thanks for the heads up. Refresh you screen and it should be fixed]
RevDeb @ 110
agreed - absolutely. but her saying that she accepts her church’s teachings on abortion (if true) is a big concern imo.
Jane Hamsher @ 103
Is it YouTube?
The Finegold clip is up on C&L now.
RevDeb @ 109
Catholics For a Free Choice is the first political/issue organization to which I gave money. I was 19. I still have the pamphlet they sent as a thank-you. It lists examples of the occasions over the CENTURIES (!)when the church has reversed course. (E.G. The divine right of kings.)
Timmeh is a guest on Scarborough . . . dissing the admin. on the ISG. Calling it a wake-up call not only for the Bushies but for the country.
RevDeb– I would never reject anyone for being of any religion … but I gotta question whether her heart is really into being ok with a woman’s right to choose or with the Church’s edicts.
that’s a problem, imho.
Timmeh out ahead of the curve…not.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 101
Yes.
Me too.
Joan Walsh Salon.com on Scarborough calls the Baker report a complete repudiation of administration policy…”a lot stronger than a lot of people expected it to be.”