Anti-abortion group rips state GOP chairman

A Colorado anti-abortion group that wasn't allowed to set up a display table at the state Republican convention blasted party chairman Dick Wadhams on Monday, saying he is trying to drag the party "to the left."

Colorado Right to Life President Joe Riccobono warned Republicans that by shunning their conservative base, they're headed for "another election catastrophe in November."

"Wadhams has moved U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer to the liberal middle and he's trying to drag the Colorado GOP to the left," said a news release from the organization.

"I've never been accused of being a closet liberal," he said. "That would come as a big surprise to my Democratic friends."

Colorado Right to Life is one of two state anti-abortion groups that have questioned Schaffer's commitment to their movement. They accuse Schaffer of refusing to take a position on the "personhood" initiative because it might cost him votes. The ballot measure would define a person as a human being from conception.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Right To Life Warns Colorado Republican Chairman "You're headed for another election catastrophe."

DENVER, June 16, 2008 – "Colorado Right To Life is warning Dick Wadhams, the state Republican Party chairman, that by shunning their pro-life conservative base they're headed for another election catastrophe in November," said Joe Riccobono, CRTL president.

"Wadhams banned the nation's oldest Right To Life organization from their state convention while he welcomed a radical pro-abortion group," said CRTL vice president Leslie Hanks. "The state's top Republican is out of touch with his own party's base, where 4 out of 5 Republicans at the convention voted to defend life beginning at fertilization."

The thousands of convention delegates passed all forty resolutions offered, except for the only one that failed, the pro-abortion Resolution #21. Convention rules require literature to be approved by the party chairman. Wadhams allowed the misnamed Republican Majority for Choice to distribute flyers quoting him about the Personhood Amendment 48 sponsors as "on the fringe of the pro-life movement, and they do not represent by any stretch of the imagination the hundreds of thousands of pro-life Coloradans."

130,000 pro-lifers signed the Personhood petition. Delegates overwhelmingly passed all uncompromising pro-life resolutions including the 78% vote affirming that "life begins at conception." 20-year-old Personhood Amendment sponsor Kristi Burton was elected among the top ten most popular of the 46 national delegates.

The Denver Post last week quoted Wadhams regarding conservative leader Dr. James Dobson's refusal to support the Republican presidential candidate. "Dobson's comments that he would not vote for the party's presumptive nominee, John McCain, won't hurt." Further, according to the Post, Wadhams agreed that the party should "avoid social issues," and the liberal ColoradoPols.com headlined their report about the state Republican chairman: "Wadhams: Dobson Is So Yesterday."

"Wadhams sells out Dobson and pro-life voters in favor of pro-abortion lobbyists," said Hanks. "Social issues have motivated Republicans in every presidential cycle since 1980."

In sharp contrast, the ColoradoRTL.org candidate questionnaire has identified many heroic leaders running for office. "But Wadhams has moved U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer to the liberal middle, and he's trying to drag the Colorado GOP to the left."

"Wadhams promotion of abortion will be the straw that elects Democrat Mark Udall," said Riccobono. Wadhams pushing the party to the left helps explain the Rocky Mountain News report that Bob Schaffer's convention speech received, "the loudest applause… when he criticized his own party."

In the past, Schaffer fought for protection of innocent human life from the moment of fertilization. "Now he's allowing the party boss Dick Wadhams to position his own former pro-life belief as bad for the Colorado GOP," said Riccobono, "so Schaffer will be blamed for their third election strike out and game over."

Media Contact: Donna Ballentine Office@ColoradoRightToLife.org 303 753-9394

Just wrote Michael Britt of the Colo GOP. Very, very, very unhappy. Here’s the HQ staff.

Headquarters Staff

Executive Director
Michael Britt
W) (303) 758-3333
michaelbritt@cologop.org

Finance Director
Elizabeth Adams
W) (303) 758-3333
elizabeth@cologop.org

Legislative Director
Cameron Lynch
W) (303) 758-3333
cameron@cologop.org

Time to get on board with a new party (and it hurts to say that after 3 decades of supporting the Repubs).

Thanks for that email info...

Here is what I just emailed them:

“As a conservative from Colorado Springs, I am concerned about the direction of GOP in this state.

I am especially concerned about the lukewarm support of ProLife issues by the “Repubucats” in this state.

I feel that this is why GOP candidates have not done well the last several years across the country.

The GOP doesn’t stand for anything anymore.

All the best...”

Name withheld

Thanks again...

CGTGOC

Calling a major right-to-life organization a “fringe group” and preventing them from setting up a table at the convention sure looks like a RINO move to me.

We have seen this again and again and again: the country clubbers are rebuked by the voters and the base, but they just won’t give up. And they see victory in their grasp with McCain at the head of the ticket.

I don’t know a single right-to-life group that is enthusiastic about McCain. For the most part, they don’t even talk about him, probably because they think it would do more harm than good. They are against Obama, and they were against hillary, but no one can work up any enthusiasm for McCain.

The hope is to lobby the local politicians and legislators. And this guy wants to make sure it doesn’t happen.

I see. And what is it that you have deduced from your depths of understanding that would cause you to superficially assume that I, or anyone on the Right to Life side, is a one issue voter?

Despite the fact that you like “Life in a Northern Town”, you don’t know me well enough to make that kind of leap of faith, or opinion.

And, btw, how many one-issue, anti-war Democrats does it take to elect Obama? Answer: Not many, when you can’t get the Republican base to come out and support your candidate (because he’s too busy cuddling up to the opposition to meet with the party stalwarts).

“And what is it that you have deduced from your depths of understanding that would cause you to superficially assume that I, or anyone on the Right to Life side, is a one issue voter?”

First, my comment wasn’t directed at you personally. Second, I guess it’s all the times I’ve seen and heard conservatives, including many FReepers state that they would NOT vote for X because of Y. One issue. Most often that issue is abortion.

“And, btw, how many one-issue, anti-war Democrats does it take to elect Obama?”

That’s not what is in discussion. I’m not talking about necessarily Obama or McCain but politics in general.

Ask a liberal what ONE issue would make them stay home on election day. The answer would likely be none.

For conservatives that “one” issue could be a number of things ranging from nuances on abortion stances to nuances on immigration policy to nuances on energy policy. It’s like they look for reasons NOT to vote.

I appreciate the non-personal nature of the comment. I think, however, that your depiction of liberals being multi-faceted is a far-too-generous straw man. You might be able to say that about a percentage of liberals, imho less than 50%, but you could say the same thing about a percentage of conservatives, too.

Based on my personal conversations and observations of Dems, I believe that most of them just want “Bush out of office”, “Bush tried as a war criminal”, “the government out of my personal life (pro-aborts)”, or some such similar claptrap. Rarely will you find someone with whom you can engage in a prolonged and reasonable discussion of the underlying roots of their beliefs and opinions. This, too, can be said of many conservatives, unfortunately.

“People are like crows. They like shiny things.” Mark Twain

Agreed...this was an incredibly stupid thing for a chairman to do.

We had a mess here in MI in 2004: Seven men ran in the GOP primary in the 7th US Congressional District. A total pro-abortion RINO named Joe Schwartz won with a measly 23% of the vote. It's a red district, so he eked out a win for the seat. In spite of having the national and state parties endorsing him, and with stand-up guys like VP Cheney and "The Architect" Rove campaiging for him, Schwartz was trounced in the 2006 primary by pro-life newcomer Tim Walberg. That's what happens when a RINO thumbs his nose at pro-lifers.

For a state party chairman to do it...stupid and reprehensible.

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