Archive for the ‘abortion’ Category

State Sen. Doug Stoner, the Smyrna Democrat whose district has been extended into Republican Buckhead, on Thursday night continued to draw out GOP challenger Hunter Hill on abortion and contraception. From the Marietta Daily Journal:

Hill said his opponents claim he’s been endorsed by Georgia Right to Life.

“It’s not true. I was endorsed by Georgia Right to Life in my 2008 campaign — incidentally, against Sen. Stoner — but I’m not endorsed this time around,” he said. “But to clear the record, I am pro-life. I’ve come to that belief through a lot of prayer and personal belief and talk with my wife, and that’s just where I am personally, but I don’t believe that we need additional laws at the state level to address this very personal issue.”

We’ve said it before: In this day and age, that’s a notably unusual statement from a Republican. But District 6, while thoroughly Republican, is a different kind of Republican.

That personhood question on the …

Continue reading Your daily jolt: Georgia doesn’t need more abortion laws, says Hunter Hill »

When Congress returns after the election, Saxby Chambliss said the Senate Intelligence Committee will hold a hearing to address the questions that remain unanswered about last month’s deadly attack on a U.S. compound in Libya, from why it took the FBI three weeks to get to Benghazi to the links between the attackers and al-Qaeda.

According to my AJC colleague Daniel Malloy in Washington, Chambliss — the ranking Republican on the committee — was privy to much of the same information that President Barack Obama.

That makes the shifting administration account of what happened all the more disturbing, Chambliss said in a telephone interview this morning.

“He stood up in the Rose Garden [on Sept. 12], and he’d seen some of the same information some of the rest of us had seen that unquestionably called it a terrorist attack,” Chambliss said. The senator argued that Obama’s reference to “acts of terror” – a key point in Tuesday’s presidential debate, likely to surface …

Continue reading Your daily jolt: ‘Al-Qaeda isn’t on the run,’ says Saxby Chambliss »

Out of Wednesday’s hearings in Washington on an attack on a U.S. compound in Libya last month, the Associated Press chose this straight approach:

Four weeks before the election, Republicans used a politically charged House hearing to confront State Department officials about security at the U.S. Consulate in Libya and assail the Obama administration’s early response to the killing of the ambassador and three other Americans there.

GOP lawmakers refused to accept the department’s explanation Wednesday that protection judged adequate for the threat was overwhelmed by an unprecedented assault in Benghazi on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

But over at the Washington Post, Dana Milbanks has this version:

The purpose of Wednesday’s hearing of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee was to examine security lapses that led to the killing in Benghazi last month of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three others. But in doing so, the lawmakers reminded us …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Blowing the lid off Libya – but not in a good way »

We have yet to see a copy of her book, and haven’t made it to the bookstore for today’s release, but former Georgia secretary of state Karen Handel apparently says she went up against Karl Rove – and lost – during her fight to separate breast cancer group Susan G. Komen for the Cure from Planned Parenthood.

That’s just the kind of tidbit that might give a publisher reason to think of Handel’s brief stint as a senior vice president for public policy as something that might be worth a book.

In “Planned Bullyhood,” Handel – having lost the 2010 GOP race for governor – tells of her efforts to separate Planned Parenthood, a provider of abortion in addition to women’s health services, from the breast cancer group.

Komen CEO Nancy Brinker eventually caved, and Handel had no choice but to make an exit. From an excerpt of the book posted Monday by anti-abortion blogger Jill Stanek:

Nancy’s reply stunned me. “Karen, I’ve talked to a lot of people. And even Karl …

Continue reading In new book, Karen Handel says Karl Rove urged back-tracking by Komen »

Spending in Republican runoff for Cobb County commission chairman has been an uneven affair.

According to the Marietta Daily Journal, incumbent Tim Lee has raised $56, 455 since Aug. 1, while challenger – and former commission chairman – Bill Byrne estimates his take at between $6,000 and $7,000.

The disparity may actually be a bit larger. This weekend, the Insider answering machine in Kennesaw was chockfull of messages on behalf of Lee (none from Byrne), including this attack:

”Something stinks. Bill Byrne, the candidate, wants you to think he’s a fiscal conservative. His record is the opposite. Bill Byrne cost Cobb taxpayers over $80 million in the failed Bedminster composting boondoggle. And then he tried to hide this from the public with an Enron-style accounting gimmick….”

The message was paid for by Cobb 2012, an independent committee whose officers are chairperson Ashley Jenkins and treasurer Bryan Tyson, an Atlanta attorney. According to its most recent …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Independent group backs Tim Lee in Cobb »

Possibly, you’ve already seen this piece by me and my AJC colleague Andria Simmons:

Metro Atlanta physicians who participated in the General Assembly’s debate on new abortion restrictions say they warned lawmakers that they were being targeted for reprisals. And they are skittish about returning to the state Capitol next year when the topic is all but certain to come up again.

Lawmakers, too, say they’re worried.

Two burglaries and two fires at Atlanta-area women’s clinics and a burglary at the the main office of the Georgia Obstetrical and Gynecological Society are being investigated by the FBI as possible acts of domestic terrorism or civil rights violations.

Four of the five offices targeted are run by doctors who had voiced concerns — sometimes publicly, sometimes privately — about the so-called fetal pain bill, which shortened to 20 weeks the time frame during which women can have an elective abortion.

“These are despicable acts and if there is some relationship …

Continue reading The chill on conversation at the state Capitol »

State Rep. Doug McKillip of Athens, author of an aggressive measure to shorten the period during which Georgia women can seek an abortion, last night faced Republican primary challenger Regina Quick in a debate sponsored by the Oconee Chamber of Commerce.

Tim Bryant of WGAU (1340AM), who moderated the confrontation, sent over a clip of the sound this morning – which featured a detailed discussion of HB 954.

At the outset, McKillip – who was briefly chairman of the House Democratic caucus — ascribed his switch to the Republican party and his sponsorship of the anti-abortion measure to a religious conversion.

Quick emphasized her six-years’ service on the executive committee of the Clarke County Republican party, but also mentioned that she grew up in a bipartisan household, with a union-member father and a GOP poll-watching mother – perhaps a nod to Democrats now supporting her.

HB 954 was one of the most contentions bills of the session, and the first major piece of …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: A fierce abortion debate in north Georgia »

On Tuesday, about-to-become-ex GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich sent an e-mail to his 178,000 donors offering “insider advanced notice” that he would be suspending his campaign today.

Most notable is the fact that Gingrich makes three mentions of Barack Obama, but doesn’t name Mitt Romney once:

Earlier in the day, Gingrich supporters also received this plea from their man:

Please find a special message from one of our advertisers, the Conservative Strikeforce PAC. Please note that the following message reflects the opinions and representations of our advertiser alone, and not necessarily the opinion or editorial positions of the Newt 2012 campaign.

The Super PAC is siding with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to beat back a recall campaign. Let the email serve as more evidence that Gingrich is renting out his mailing list to help pay down that $4.5 million debt.

In yet another message to supporters – a set of talking points to guide supporters who intended to stick …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Details of Newt Gingrich’s long good-bye »

Charlie Harper of the Dublin Courier Herald has a tough piece today on the Peach Tea Party, and whether the “tea party” brand has lost its meaning. A few paragraphs via PeachPundit:

The Cherokee County TEA Party begins every meeting with a simple reminder: “We are about lower taxes and smaller government. Anyone else here supporting other issues are welcome, but this is the focus of this group.”

…[N]ow many of the same folks who have destroyed the once proud brand represented by Georgia Right To Life have decided that they too must be a TEA Party in order to be taken seriously.

These people who are Proselytizing Evangelicals Advocating Conservative Hypocrisy have decided to co-opt the brand of those who are Taxed Enough Already to form the PEACH TEA Party. Tuesday, they decided to target 16 state Republicans as RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and one independent for defeat as well…. The litmus test to determine opposition, however, seems to have nothing to do …

Continue reading On the ‘tea party’ label and social conservatism »

A bill to shorten the period during which women may seek abortions passed the state Senate this evening, but not before 13 Republican state senators joined Democrats to substantially change it – raising the possibility that it might not pass before the Legislature adjourns on Thursday.

The bill is sponsored by state Rep. Doug McKillip, R-Athens, who switched parties 18 months ago. If he recommends it, the House would likely accept the changes, sending the bill quickly to the governor.

But Dan Becker, president of Georgia Right to Life, said he will encourage McKillip not to do so, increasing the chances that the bill could get bogged down in the last-minute dickering between the two chambers.

Despite warnings from Senate sponsor Renee Unterman, R-Buford, that amendments were intended to kill the bill, Senate Republicans joined Democrats to make two substantial changes. One was an effort to protect physicians hit with civil suits as a result of the legislation.

But Becker …

Continue reading Senate Republicans balk, complicate passage for anti-abortion bill »