Have you read Sarah Palin's Going Rogue yet?

Dan Gilgoff offers some excerpts where Palin talks about her faith:

And I do know there is a God. My life is in His hands. I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite Him in to take over . . . then see what He will do and how He will get you through. Test Him on this. You'll see there's no such thing as coincidence. I'm thankful for His majestic creation called Alaska.

She also talks about putting your life in God's hands in an interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Sarah Palin: "My very last paragraph there sums it up and invites people, encourages people to do what I did and that's put their life in God's hands, our Creator who knows probably better than we know what the perfect path is for a person so God being so extremely important my faith is to my life I wasn't going to be hesitant at all to let people know what I believe."

Sarah Palin: "How in the World would I sum up my life except to say God at the end of the day I have really nothing but my faith, my reliance on you lord and I wanted to articulate that."

She talks about her faith in God here, but there's little mention of Jesus. If you've read Palin's book, what did you think?

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at November 20, 2009 9:20AM | Comments (7)

Debates over whether the federal government should fund abortion became central in passing final health care legislation after the House passed the Stupak amendment, which bans funding abortion. “The simple math in the House suggests the health bill wouldn't have passed without the votes of the moderates who came to the ‘yes’ side after the Stupak amendment,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Some pro-choice critics of the amendment say that it goes far beyond previous limits placed on federal funding of abortions, diminishing the legal standing of abortion based on Roe v. Wade. Pro-choice advocates are determined to stop the bill from passing the Senate with the amendment attached. Tuesday, the pro-choice Center for Reproductive Rights launched a new ad aimed at warning viewers that Congress could “ban abortion coverage millions of women already have.”

The Conference of Catholic Bishops is pushing back against pro-choice lobbyists in order to retain the amendment, denying in a recent assessment that the Stupak amendment would affect existing access to abortion because it only applies to the use of government money and not private insurance options. (The Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio also break down the terms of the amendment and agree that the affect of the amendment will be minimal.) The Los Angeles Times noted that the Catholic organization, which has been lobbying the federal government to provide universal health insurance for the past three decades, wielded significant influence in the addition of the amendment because the organization will not support a bill that covers abortion.

President Obama reportedly wants to strip the amendment from the bill before it passes the Senate, and several pro-choice senators have spoken out against the amendment, as well. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) claimed Tuesday that there were not enough pro-life senators to retain the amendment in the Senate version of the bill:

"Harry Reid's not going to put the Stupak language in the bill, I'd be certain. ... Then the Republicans will try to amend it into the bill, and they will be unsuccessful; they won't even get close to 50 votes."

The pro-life Susan B. Anthony List has focused on pressuring Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to support the amendment, calling on Reid to live up to his “pro-life commitments.” Reid is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which does not condone abortion.

Obama adviser David Axelrod did not rule out the idea that Obama would veto his own reform plan, according to Politico:

Axelrod said Obama hasn't said whether he'll sign or veto legislation over its stance on the so-called public option and won't say whether the abortion language could cause Obama to oppose the legislation. "He believes both these issues can and will be worked through before it reaches his desk," the Obama adviser said.

However, Axelrod did acknowledge that the abortion funding limits offered by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) ran counter to Obama's stated desire to avoid using the health care bill to change the federal government's stance towards abortion.

"The bill that Congress passed does change the status quo," Axelrod said on CNN. "There are discussions ongoing about how to adjust it accordingly."

Reid plans to unveil legislation today, with a vote to proceed expected by the end of the week.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at November 18, 2009 1:36PM | Comments (6)

The House just voted 220-215 to approve health care legislation that would create a public health insurance option and require employers to offer health insurance.

Before the final vote, the House also voted 240-194 to bar federal funding of abortion in the proposed government-run health care plan.

Sixty-four Democrats voted in favor of the amendment led by Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), while Republican Rep. John Shadegg voted present in an effort to derail the bill. Here's the full description of the Stupak amendment.

The amendment prohibits federal funds for abortion services in the public option. It also prohibits individuals who receive affordability credits from purchasing a plan that provides elective abortions. However, it allows individuals, both who receive affordability credits and who do not, to separately purchase with their own funds plans that cover elective abortions. It also clarifies that private plans may still offer elective abortions.

Here's analysis from the Associated Press:

Under the Stupak amendment, people who do not receive federal insurance subsidies could buy private insurance plans in the exchange that include abortion coverage. People who receive federal subsidies could buy separate policies covering only abortions if they use only their own money to do it.

Companies selling insurance policies covering abortions would be required to offer identical policies without the abortion coverage.

...A health overhaul bill pending in the Senate also bars federal funding for abortion, but the language is less stringent. Discrepancies between the House and Senate measures would have to be reconciled before any final bill is passed.

CT reported earlier on how abortion and health care had split Democrats, and The New York Times reported that Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to deal with another fight before the final vote.

With just hours to go before the start on Saturday morning of historic floor debate over the health care bill, leading Democratic members of the Pro-Choice Caucus emerged from Ms. Pelosi’s office unable to contain their fury. Ms. Pelosi, unwilling to delay a vote on the larger bill, had decided that Democrats who oppose abortion simply had too many votes on their side; for the moment, at least, the liberals who favor abortion rights had lost.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins released a statement praising the Stupak amendment but said that the health care legislation is "seriously flawed."

"The Speaker's bill still allows rationing of health care for seniors, raises health costs for families, mandates that families purchase under threat of fines and penalties, encourages counseling for assisted suicide in some states, does not offer broad conscience protections for health care workers and seeks to insert the federal government into all aspects of citizen's lives."

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at November 7, 2009 10:23PM | Comments (18)

An unstamped letter from former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop caused a security scare when Capitol Police shut down Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s for 45 minutes office yesterday.

Koop's letter, addressed to Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, protested federal funding of abortion in health care legislation.

"More specifically, I am troubled about the possibility of federal dollars being used to pay for elective abortions and Americans being forced to subsidize them," Koop wrote. "I firmly believe that strong protections must be included in this legislation so that health care providers are not forced to participate in abortions against their will."

Roll Call reports that the letter was stampless with "C. Everett Koop" written in the upper-left corner, and staffers reported it as a suspicious package to the police.

Reached at his home Wednesday, Koop confirmed that he wrote a few “beautifully typed” pages on his views of the health care legislation. The fact that it caused a Capitol Hill scare is “nonsense,” he said.

“I wasn’t aware that sending a hand-delivered letter was an offense,” he said, later adding: “I did it over a weekend. I don’t have a lot of secretarial help and I’m 93.”

Koop wrote in his letter that a Hyde-like amendment, which bars most federal funding for abortion, should be included in any health care bill.

"I believe that including this legislative language is necessary to ensure the elective abortions are not financed either directly through a public plan or indirectly through federal subsidies provided to purchase health insurance through state exchanges," he wrote. "I also find it troubling that the legislation requires all state exchanges to offer at least one health plan that includes abortion coverage - no other federal health plan has that specific requirement today."

Koop, now a professor at Dartmouth Medical School, was Reagan administration's surgeon general from January 1982 to October 1989 and is considered influential in moving evangelicals into the pro-life camp.

(h/t Kathryn Jean Lopez)

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at November 5, 2009 11:50AM | Comments (15)

Early exit polls show Maine heading towards a repeal of a state law that would have allowed same-sex marriage.

The Legislature passed the law in May, but the election offered voters the chance to repeal the measure.

With more than 84 percent of precincts reporting early Tuesday, voters seeking to repeal the law claimed 53 percent of the vote.

In Washington state, early election results showed that voters were approving the state’s “everything but marriage” law, which gives registered domestic partners additional state-granted rights currently given only to married couples.

Early election returns showed Washington's referendum on same-sex marriage passing 51 percent to 49 percent. Last month, the Supreme Court upheld an order preventing Washington State from releasing the names of more than 120,000 people who signed petitions seeking the voter referendum. Protect Marriage Washington feared that releasing the names would result in harassment.

Social change may come for individual cities as well. In Houston, a lesbian candidate for mayor will head into a run-off with a plurality of the vote. A gay man was elected mayor of Chapel Hill, while Detroit elected a gay City Council president.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at November 4, 2009 12:29AM | Comments (265)

Chris Christie became the first Republican in several years to become New Jersey's governor in the Democratic-leaning state.

He joins Virginia governor-elect Bob McConnell as the second Republican Catholic to be voted into gubernatorial office today.

The Associated Press reports that with 75 percent of the precincts reporting, Christie leads with 50 percent of the vote over his Democratic opponent Gov. Jon Corzine, who is left with 44 percent of the vote. President Obama invested in the race, campaigning with Corzine five times on three visits.

During the campaign, Corzine targeted Christie in an ad criticizing Christie's support of a constitutional ban on abortion and opposition of funding stem cell research.

Christie has explained his positions on social issues to the Star-Ledger.

In an interview, Christie today outlined his own positions on social issues, saying he evolved from pro-choice to pro-life with the birth of his children but would not use the governor's office to "force that down people's throats." However, he said he favors restrictions on abortion rights such as banning partial-birth abortions and requiring parental notification and a 24-hour waiting period.

He said he favors the state's current law allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions but would veto a bill legalizing same-sex marriage if it reached his desk. Corzine has said he would sign such a bill.

Late last week, Ben Smith of Politico reported that on two groups that were mailing out information about cultural issues in the race.

A pair of conservative advocacy groups -- the New Jersey Faith & Freedom Coalition and the New Jersey Family Policy Council -- are dropping mail in the Garden State that takes on Corzine and Daggett on cultural issues.

The pieces, which got into the hands of Democrats, were mailed to a household with an Irish last name, surely under the assumption that said household was Catholic.

Running in deep-blue Jersey, Christie has avoided cultural issues during the campaign.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at November 3, 2009 9:32PM | Comments (3)

Republican Bob McDonnell won Virginia's governor race today, becoming the second Catholic governor of Virginia, the Associated Press reports. Outgoing Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine became the first.

The former state attorney general defeated Democratic candidate, R. Creigh Deeds, who attempted to slam McDonnell for his 1989 master’s thesis while attending Regent University. McDonnell had described working women and feminists as "detrimental" to the family. Deeds's strategy didn't work, the Washington Post writes.

The strategy appeared to work for a time, as polls tightened. But McDonnell fought back with a series of TV spots featuring supportive testimonials from his daughter, an Army veteran who served in Iraq, and a gallery of professional women who had worked for him in the attorney general's office. Increasingly, voters said they saw Deeds's campaign as a largely negative one that failed to define his own vision for the state.

The Post also reports that McConnell was careful not to alienate independents or Democrats, praising President Obama for promoting charter schools and fatherhood.

Although known for a social conservatism deeply informed by his religious faith during his 14 years as a delegate representing Virginia Beach, during the gubernatorial campaign McDonnell studiously avoided controversial such social issues as abortion, immigration and gun rights, largely neutralizing the Democrats' effort to portray him as an extremist with a stealth agenda.

The New York Times reports that McDonnell kept his distance from the further right end of his party. Ian Urbina writes, "When the conservative activist Ralph Reed sponsored robo-calls to voters featuring former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska asking them to vote their values, Mr. McDonnell’s campaign declined to answer questions about the calls and emphasized that the campaign had not asked Ms. Palin to make them."

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at November 3, 2009 7:15PM | Comments (1)

The Maine Legislature legalized same-sex marriage in May, but voters will get a chance to repeal the new law on Tuesday.

This is the first time voters have had a chance to repeal a legislature-initiated law that extends marriage to same-sex couples. If voters repeal it, the law will not be implemented.

The campaign to approve the law, Protect Maine Equality, and the campaign for repealing the law, Stand For Marriage Maine are still fighting hard as Election Day approaches to get the voters out. Protect Maine Equality raised $4 million for advertising and other campaign material, compared to $2.6 million raised by Stand for Marriage Maine, according to The New York Times. In addition, Gov. John Baldacci (D) publicly supports the law.

The final public opinion polls taken before the election suggest that the vote is a dead heat, the Washington Post reports.

Maine’s Press Herald said that 51.8 percent plan to vote “no” (the law should stand) while 42.9 percent plan to vote “yes” (the law should be repealed).

The last time the issue was decided by voters rather than through the legislature or courts was California’s Proposition 8. In November 2008, a majority voted that only marriage “between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California,” as defined now by the California Constitution.

A spokesperson for Stand For Marriage Maine told the Post that after the backlash in California against the Mormon Church, its leadership decided not to become directly involved in Maine. Gov. Baldacci did identify Catholics as a group to watch closely.

"Lewiston, in western Maine, that's a pretty large segment of Franco-American Roman Catholic, working-class kind of a community," he told The Washington Post. "Reactions and support has been pretty good, but that'll be an area we'll want to watch."

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at November 2, 2009 9:57PM | Comments (16)