A state senator who once said that giving women the vote was a symptom of weakness in the U.S. family wants to be Kansas' top elections...

By John Hanna
The Associated Press, June 2, 2005

TOPEKA, Kan. - A state senator who once said that giving women the vote was a symptom of weakness in the U.S. family wants to be Kansas' top elections official.

Sen. Kay O'Connor said yesterday that she is seeking the Republican nomination for secretary of state next year. O'Connor, 63, has served in the Legislature since 1993.

In 2001, O'Connor received national attention for her remarks about the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1920, which gave women the right to vote.

"I think the 19th Amendment, while it's not an evil in and of itself, is a symptom of something I don't approve of," she said at the time. "The 19th Amendment is around because men weren't doing their jobs, and I think that's sad. I believe the man should be the head of the family. The woman should be the heart of the family."

Yesterday, she dismissed the controversy, which included an unsuccessful drive to recall her from office, as "silliness." She said she does not think voters will consider it a significant issue.

"I am who I am. You don't have to agree with everything I say," O'Connor said.

But Caroline McKnight, executive director of a group devoted to fighting conservatives in politics, said, "If she thinks it's going to go away because she's on a statewide ballot, she's living on another planet."

The Associated Press - Thursday, May 26, 2005

West Palm Beach - A woman has been charged with evidence tampering and child neglect after arranging an abortion for her 17-year-old daughter during an incest investigation.

The girl's 40-year-old stepfather was charged Friday with familial sexual battery. The 33-year-old mother also was arrested. Both are free on $5,000 bond. The girl and her sister have been placed in state custody.

Palm Beach County sheriff's detectives wanted to perform a paternity test on the fetus as part of the investigation, but they say the mother took her daughter to a Broward County clinic for an abortion without notifying them.

"She was protecting her daughter and her husband, thinking we would not have any evidence and would not be able to pursue it," sheriff's spokesman Paul Miller said Wednesday.

But Jack Fleischman, a criminal defense lawyer, questions the strength of the case against the mother, saying investigators should have obtained a court order.

"I don't think the mother under those circumstances is required to cooperate with police," he said.

The state attorney's office will decide later whether to pursue the charges filed by the sheriff's office.

The girl claimed that her stepfather had impregnated her late last year, and authorities say he had another sexual encounter with her in April.

Hearing Them Roar

May 19, 2005
By Lauren W. Whittington
Roll Call Staff

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, chaired by Sen. Elizabeth Dole (N.C.), is stepping up efforts to reach out to women voters in the 2006 cycle - launching a new program that aims to bring more females into the GOP fold.

Dole, the first woman to head the NRSC, will unveil the new Women's Majority Network this week. A steering committee of women leaders from around the country is being finalized and will be announced at a later date.

"Throughout my career in public service it has been a goal of mine to get as many women as possible involved in the political process," Dole said in a statement. "This exciting new initiative will do just that."

Dole is modeling the program after similar outreach efforts during her 2002 Senate and 2000 presidential campaigns, when she met women who weren't involved in the political process beyond the act of voting.

Dole, also the first woman Senator elected from the Tar Heel State, has hired Lindi Harvey to lead the new effort.

Most recently, Harvey was deputy director for international women's issues at the State Department. She has also worked in the private sector, as a business and financial service adviser for more than 20 years.

"I am thrilled that Lindi has agreed to lead this groundbreaking program to encourage women to become involved in the NRSC efforts to increase our Republican majority in the U.S. Senate," Dole said.

The Women's Majority Network will also be used as a tool to increase female participation in the handful of donor programs the NRSC currently runs.

According to Democratic polling conducted in November 2004, there was a 7-point gender gap in last year's presidential contest, with 48 percent of women and 55 percent of men voting to re-elect President Bush. While a slight majority of women voted for Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), the Democratic nominee actually lost ground among female voters when compared to the 2000 election results.

Last year, 51 percent of women and 44 percent of men voted for Kerry.

As the NRSC increases efforts to get women more involved in local politics, there are currently no top-tier Republican women challengers in 2006 Senate races.

GOP Reps. Katherine Harris (Fla.) and Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) are both weighing Senate bids against Democratic incumbent Sens. Bill Nelson and Robert Byrd, respectively.

Republicans could actually end up with one less woman in the Senate after 2006, if no new women are elected and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) vacates her seat to run for governor, as is expected.

Copyright 2005 © Roll Call Inc. All rights reserved.

Republicans in Washington state continue legal assault on Gregoire
Washington state GOPers are promoting a dubious strategy in their lawsuit to oust Christine Gregoire from the governor's seat. Gregoire defeated Republican Dino Rossi in November after two recounts, one machine and one hand. To convince Judge John Bridges to call another election, they are asking him to use their scheme to disqualify votes based on statistically calculated "proportional deduction," and consequently discount many cast for Gregoire, who won the hand recount by 129 votes. The trial marks the next step of Rossi's increasingly desperate attempts to use the courts to win an election he officially lost five months ago.

Part of the Republican strategy is to force Washington Democrats to spend millions defending themselves in court - more than $3 million so far, and counting - to bankrupt the state party before the 2006 election. Additionally, a new gubernatorial election would cost Washington taxpayers millions.

Since taking office, Gregoire has governed with certainty and confidence, accomplishing many of her legislative priorities. These include passage of her billion-dollar fund for biomedical research, and signing into law a host of environmental bills designed to raise car emissions standards and improve and develop renewable energy sources.

Meanwhile Rossi makes no bones of his ambitions to foil Gregoire's plans for the state (his quixotic office staff still answers the phone, "Rossi for governor"). Last Monday, the unrelenting Rossi recently told The New York Times, "I'm going to be governor sooner or later. I'm working on sooner."

Senate confirms Stabenow's transportation bill amendment
A transportation bill that Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) helped shape received overwhelming bipartisan support last Tuesday in the Senate. A leading advocate for the bill's passage, Stabenow bucked the Bush administration budget proposal, co-authoring an amendment to add an additional $11 billion to the House version of the bill. The bill provides $295 billion in highway and transport funding, with Michigan slated to receive $5.66 billion over the next five years.

The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that the additional funds for Michigan could translate into 54,000 well-paying jobs each year, and generate billions in economic development for the state. The additional funds will also help improve road conditions, which are a factor in one-third of traffic deaths each year.

Despite the fact that the bill passed 89-11, Bush has brandished threats to flex his veto power, which would result in the first veto of his administration. The bill would then return to the Senate, where there would most likely be enough votes to override his veto.

California's Solis pushes pesticide ban through House
Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-Calif.) scored a victory May 19 when the House approved on a voice vote an amendment she introduced to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from accepting, conducting, or relying on studies that knowingly expose human beings to pesticides.

An unlikely alliance of environmental activists and religious groups backed Solis's measure, brought together by mutual concerns over the impact and ethics of human testing.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out morally this is not the right thing to do," Solis said.

California Sen. Barbara Boxer drew attention to the problem of human testing last month when she threatened a hold on President Bush's nominee to head the EPA, Stephen L. Johnson, to try to force the EPA to cancel clearly unethical testing. Boxer revealed one EPA-sponsored study that paid poor, predominantly African American families in Florida $970 over two years to measure the effects of regular exposure to pesticides on infants.

President Bill Clinton had banned the use of human testing, but Bush reversed Clinton's ban with a controversial proposal introduced earlier this year. Bush's proposal gave the EPA the power to consider and accept human-tested studies from the pesticide industry and other outside sources on a case-by-case basis.

Solis noted on the House floor that the EPA's lax attitude about human testing has allowed the pesticides industry to incease the number of human testing studies, many of which Solis says are statistically invalid.

EMILY's List announces the Campaign Corps Class of 2005
EMILY's List rigorous training program for recent college graduates, Campaign Corps, has finalized its selections for the Class of 2005. The 42 young women and men were selected from a pool of nearly 400 qualified applicants.

EMILY's List will bring these 26 women and 16 men to Washington, D.C., at the end of July for a week-long campaign school. During this intensive week of training, the country's leading Democratic operatives will explain the basics of political campaigning - voter targeting, field organizing, fundraising, and press strategy - while students participate in a simulated week-long campaign. After training, Campaign Corps graduates will be sent to work on campaigns of progressive, pro-choice candidates. Many will work on the 2005 elections in New Jersey and Virginia, while others will be placed for three months on campaigns to be decided in November 2006.

The Class of 2005 was recruited from colleges all over the country - including many historically black colleges in the southern U.S., as well as schools in California, Kansas, Minnesota, and Arizona. Campaign Corps will pick up the tab for all travel expenses, and each participant will receive a stipend and housing while on the campaign.

Bush FDA appointee steps down after wife alleges sexual assault
After a report in The Nation that Dr. W. David Hager repeatedly sexually abused his wife during the last seven years of their 32-year marriage, Hager announced he will not seek reappointment to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) advisory panel on reproductive drugs. Hager, who had an influential hand in blocking the FDA approval of emergency contraception ("Plan B") for over-the-counter (OTC) distribution, will instead step down after his second term expires June 30.

Hager's decision to leave his post comes on the heels of a letter sent by Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) and Patty Murray (Wash.) to the secretary of Health and Human Services urging an investigation into Hager's role in preventing OTC approval of Plan B. The senators pointed out that although the committee of expert scientists voted 23-4 to approve OTC access, a "minority report" memo written by Hager effectively stalled FDA's approval. This was the second time in 50 years that FDA rejected an advisory panel recommendation.

Hager has always received strong backing from right-wing evangelical groups, including Focus on the Family and Concerned Women for America. Hager has written about Christ's ability to heal women's illnesses and reportedly refused to prescribe contraception to unmarried women. According to The Nation, last fall Hager bragged about his role in blocking Plan B at a sermon at Asbury College in Wilmore, Ky. "After two days of hearings, the committees voted to approve this over-the-counter sale by 23 to 4," Hager said. "I was asked to write a minority opinion that was sent to the commissioner of the FDA.... Now, the opinion I wrote was not from an evangelical Christian perspective.... But I argued it from a scientific perspective, and God took that information, and He used it through this minority report to influence the decision."

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on May 23 to hear a case that challenges access to abortion. The law was ruled unconstitutional by the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals because it contained no health exception in the event of a medical emergency.

"We are surprised and disappointed the Supreme Court has decided to hear this case," said Planned Parenthood Federation of America Interim President Karen Pearl. "Yet we are confident that this court will reaffirm a woman's right to abortion access. States should never put women's health at risk."

The Supreme Court decision to take this case shines additional light on the debate over judicial nominees in the Senate. Speculation is rampant that at least one Supreme Court justice may retire when the court recesses for summer.

June 3rd, 2005

GEORGE W. BUSH'S ROSE COLORED GLASSES

"I'm not worried about things in Washington" - George W. Bush, at a press conference this week in the White House Rose Garden.

Well we're glad the President is worry free. Unfortunately, the American people do not have the luxury of ignoring the facts, as they continue to be concerned about shrinking wages, rising kitchen table costs, and skyrocketing gas prices. Maybe they should borrow the rose colored glasses President Bush seems to be wearing.

Recent polls show not only the President's approval rates are shrinking, but Americans are voicing less confidence about the economy. A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows that over 60 percent of respondents feel there needs to be more attention shown to the record gasoline prices, jobs and health care. Even leading Republican spinsters disagree with President Bush's rosy economic rhetoric. Republican pollster Frank Luntz told Bloomberg news "you can't tell the American people, Happy days are here again, if they're angry about gas prices and afraid for their jobs. They won't believe it." We agree - American's can't and don't trust President Bush's effort to spin us on a sluggish economy.

Here are the facts:

• Home Foreclosures Rose in 47 states. "Foreclosure rates rose in 47 states in March, according to Foreclosure.com, an online foreclosure listing service. The rates in Florida, Texas and Colorado are more than twice the national average." [Washington Post , 5/30/05]
• American Wages Shrunk for the First time in Ten Years, in 2004. "When adjusted for inflation, average wages in the U.S. in 2004 declined by 0.4 percent. This marked the first time that wages have shrunk since 1994." [Joint Economic Committee of Congress Report, 1/19/05]
• Americans Faced Higher Gas Prices, Negative Effect On Economy. "Gas prices have remained at record levels for the past two months - at $2.13 per gallon nationwide, with some states averaging much more (California $2.48 per gallon). That means gas prices have risen 35 cents since the beginning of the year. Under current estimates, a family of four will spend $423 more on gasoline this year than last year and almost $800 more than two years ago. [Boston Globe, 4/8/05; Consumer Expenditure Survey from Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Energy Information Administration]
• Families Faced Higher "Kitchen Table Costs." Families are paying much more for 'kitchen table costs' including health care and education. Brand name drug prices rose last year by more than twice the rate of inflation, the largest increase in the five years it has monitored prices according to a study released by the AARP. Under President Bush, health care costs for families have skyrocketed almost 50 percent and college tuition has gone up about 36 percent, even taking inflation into account." [KFF, 2004; College Board, 2004] The fact is the Republican Congress is still not focusing on issues important to Americans. The Washington Republican leadership and President Bush continue to push forward nominees for judicial positions and top administration positions who are out of the mainstream - fighting for their special-interest political allies instead of getting down to proposing actual solutions to problems American's families care about.