DANFORTH

Here's what the man writes in today's Times: "During the 18 years I served in the Senate, Republicans often disagreed with each other. But there was much that held us together. We [Republicans] believed in limited government, in keeping light the burden of taxation and regulation. We encouraged the private sector, so that a free economy might thrive."

MORE DANFORTH [Ramesh Ponnuru] Danforth was, as he notes, a reliable anti-abortion vote during his time in the Senate (although he came out in support of funding research on tissues taken from aborted fetuses toward the end of his time there). Many people claim that trying to outlaw abortion is an impermissible mixing of religion and politics. Generally, these people claim the same thing about attempts to outlaw cloning. How does Danforth distinguish between the two cases? "I am and have always been pro-life. But the only explanation for legislators comparing cells in a petri dish to babies in the womb is the extension of religious doctrine into statutory law." (This, mind you, from a man who used to give speeches on abortion that ended with quotations from St. Paul.) So it's okay to say "life begins at conception" when you're trying to ban abortion, but not--oh, never mind, this argument isn't worth anyone's time. Basically, Danforth's position boils down to this: Any religious-conservative initiative he supports doesn't cross a church-state line, and any such initiative he opposes does. And when a religious conservative and Danforth disagree, it's the former who's being "divisive." He used to be called "St. Jack." I always thought that was a tribute to his decency, not his sanctimony. Baloney. During the first Bush administration, Congress imposed regulations on the private sector far more substantial than any it has passed during the last five years: the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Civil Rights Restoration Act, for example. Danforth voted for the former and was the lead sponsor of the latter. He voted for the first Bush's tax increase in 1990. And he voted for the first major regulatory initiative of the Clinton administration, the Family and Medical Leave Act. Republican congressmen have become less pro-regulation, not more, and it is partly because they are no longer burdened by the likes of Senator Danforth.

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DANFORTH [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Here's what the man writes in today's Times: "During the 18 years I served in the Senate, Republicans often disagreed with each other. But there was much that held us together. We [Republicans] believed in limited government, in keeping light the burden of taxation and regulation. We encouraged the private sector, so that a free economy might thrive."

Baloney. During the first Bush administration, Congress imposed regulations on the private sector far more substantial than any it has passed during the last five years: the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Civil Rights Restoration Act, for example. Danforth voted for the former and was the lead sponsor of the latter. He voted for the first Bush's tax increase in 1990. And he voted for the first major regulatory initiative of the Clinton administration, the Family and Medical Leave Act. Republican congressmen have become less pro-regulation, not more, and it is partly because they are no longer burdened by the likes of Senator Danforth.

MORE DANFORTH [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Danforth was, as he notes, a reliable anti-abortion vote during his time in the Senate (although he came out in support of funding research on tissues taken from aborted fetuses toward the end of his time there). Many people claim that trying to outlaw abortion is an impermissible mixing of religion and politics. Generally, these people claim the same thing about attempts to outlaw cloning. How does Danforth distinguish between the two cases? "I am and have always been pro-life. But the only explanation for legislators comparing cells in a petri dish to babies in the womb is the extension of religious doctrine into statutory law." (This, mind you, from a man who used to give speeches on abortion that ended with quotations from St. Paul.) So it's okay to say "life begins at conception" when you're trying to ban abortion, but not--oh, never mind, this argument isn't worth anyone's time. Basically, Danforth's position boils down to this: Any religious-conservative initiative he supports doesn't cross a church-state line, and any such initiative he opposes does. And when a religious conservative and Danforth disagree, it's the former who's being "divisive." He used to be called "St. Jack." I always thought that was a tribute to his decency, not his sanctimony.

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