NARAL: Santorum's Best Friend

This is just freakish.

We here in Pennsylvania were supposed to be playing host to this year's Armageddon Senate race between two anti-abortion candidates: the Republican incumbent Rick Santorum (a five-star general in the Culture War), and the Democratic state treasurer Bob Casey, Jr. scion of a political dynasty.

But the pro-choice wing of the Democratic party -- showing their attention-grabby side -- got all grumbly-mouthed about this, and now a sabotage of Casey's campaign is being buzzed about in which Kate Michelman, the former president of NARAL (the National Abortion Rights Action League) is considering an independent bid for the seat. Not to win, of course, but to punish Casey by siphoning votes away from him, because he doesn't completely kowtow to the militant fringe.

So who would the martyr for the pro-life cause be now? And it wouldn't be the first time the Caseys have been punished by the Democratic party for bucking it on abortion.

By this standard, hard-core pro-choicers are more akin to St. Blog's than any of us could've imagined.

The former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, took particular exception to Mr. Casey's statement earlier this year that he would have voted to confirm Justice Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court.

"For me and for many people across the country who care about women's rights, that was the straw that broke the camel's back,'' Ms. Michelman said. "I have become a vehicle for people who feel they have to take action at a time of crisis.''

Ms. Michelman, who has been making appearances around the country to promote her memoir, "With Liberty and Justice for All,'' said she was seriously considering the race and planned to decide in the near future.

"I am talking to a number of close friends and political advisers,'' she said. "I was appalled at the lack of commitment by pro-choice senators [in the Alito confirmation]. I was particularly appalled by Bob Casey's statement, which I thought was politically unwise and unnecessary.''

The Casey campaign greeted the Michelman speculation with a conciliatory observation: "Democrats are stronger when we work together on the many issues where we have common ground and Bob Casey looks forward to doing that in the U.S. Senate."

Ms. Michelman's decision comes as the always volatile abortion issue has been amplified by two high court confirmation battles and moves by legislatures in South Dakota and Mississippi to enact anti-abortion measures calculated to force the Supreme Court to revisit the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

Grrrrrrrrrr.... Grrrrrrr.... You'll have to forgive me; I'm quite vexed about this.

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