Case in Point: House Conservatives Didn't Get It

Geez! Talk about being stuck in the Wayback Machine. House conservatives must have slept through the November elections and their aftermath. Otherwise, why would they be foisting the carnival-like spectacle of a sure-to-die wedge issue bill on a nation so thoroughly bored with wedge issue politics? Somebody please tell them to keep their codas to themselves.

And how unlike the Democrats to be handling this same wedge issue with aplomb. Kudos to House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi for figuring out a path through that most treacherous of issues, abortion rights, without making new enemies.

"In a surprising move, House Democratic leaders have said they won't lobby members of their caucus to vote against legislation that would inform women of the pain their baby would feel during an abortion. The House is expected to take a vote on the measure Wednesday."

The National Right to Life Committee, in typical pro-woman style, reports: "This bill would require every abortionist to provide, whenever a woman seeks an abortion past 20 weeks after fertilization, information about the capacity of her unborn child to experience pain during the abortion. After that, the woman would either request or refuse (by signing a form) the administration of pain-reducing drugs directly to the unborn child. The woman's decision regarding such drugs is entirely voluntary."

Voluntary. I get it. Kind of like pain is voluntary after you've been knocked against the wall with a baseball bat.

Wake up, extremists! The message of the November 2006 elections should stand as a telegram tattooed onto your ample, Neanderthal-like brows. The American public is sick of wedge issue politics. Neither party won. Democrats simply profited from Republican extremism. Perhaps Democrats will succeed in tempering not only their own left-wing extremists but also guiding Republicans to take a whip to the GOP's extreme right wing. Down, boys, please!

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