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Reproductive Freedom

Romney and Brownback Compete for Right-Wing Pole Position in 2008

As contenders for the Republican nomination for president jostle for the Right’s favor, much of the focus has been on social wedge issues like abortion and gay marriage. The Religious Right has signaled that it will not be easy to please(link is external), and the candidates have responded by working overtime to prove their bona fides.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has carefully courted(link is external) religious-right leaders and whose speech(link is external) against same-sex marriage at FRC’s “Liberty Sunday” event was interpreted(link is external) as a pitch for the evangelical vote, fell afoul(link is external) of the Right when statements he made in 1994 were revisited that seemed to reveal a more liberal stance on abortion and gays. His attempts(link is external) to explain his apparent shift and to recover(link is external) his position have interfered with his efforts to “occupy(link is external) the conservative ground” early.

Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback has also been angling for that same ground, by positioning himself as the defender(link is external) of Christmas(link is external), by emphasizing support(link is external) for faith-based programs, and by keeping the right-wing assault on the judiciary alive(link is external) in the Senate. He has been seen in Iowa recently(link is external), hoping for a state-level Religious Right with increased influence. (He’s already picked up(link is external) the endorsement of the president of Iowa Right to Life.) Brownback told(link is external) the National Catholic Reporter, “I’ll be the only person at the core of the campaign who will be pushing for the reform of the family and restoration of the culture and human dignity at all phases of life.”

But lest the economic Right feel left out, both Romney and Brownback, a day apart, just signed(link is external) the “Taxpayer’s Protection Pledge” put out by Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform(link is external). Norquist, a leading organizer of the right-wing coalition in Washington, has famously described(link is external) his goal as “to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”