We're On a Roll!

Below the Belt: A Biweekly Column by NOW President Kim Gandy

November 10, 2005

We're on a roll! The last two weeks have been full of good news, from winning ballot measures in California and Maine and defeating ultra-conservative gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia, to forcing the Republican leadership to repeatedly delay the vote on their slash-and-burn budget because they can't get enough votes to pass it. NOW activists had a role in all of those victories, and I'm grateful for your tireless activism. Today, even as I write this, NOW leaders from nearly a dozen states are on Capitol Hill meeting with their senators and staff about why we oppose the nomination of Sam Alito. So if you haven't met with your own senators to urge them to oppose Alito, NOW is the time — and we'll help!

But there's also disturbing news about our country's international behavior. Talk about hitting "below the belt," W is on the defensive these days after a news leak that the CIA has secret "black spot" prisons all across the world, which are violating human rights left and right. The resulting Bush rhetoric on the use of torture has really been beyond the pale. His speeches have amounted to an unsettling paradox: the U.S. does not torture, and therefore the Senate should not pass a ban on our use of torture. Excuse me?

It sounds straight out of "Catch-22," classic Vietnam-era "waging war to create peace" rhetoric, and it is just as backwards and wrong now as it was then. Maybe it's time to bring back some anti-Vietnam-war-style graffiti — Molly Ivins offers a good one: "Is fighting for peace like having sex for chastity?"

There was a time (pretty recently, sadly), when no one questioned classic Bush doubletalk. At the beginning of W's administration, he talked about "clean skies" and meant rolling back EPA air pollution standards. He pressed for legislation called 'No Child Left Behind," which is defunding education in poor neighborhoods, and legislation called "Healthy Forests" really reduces restrictions on logging. Somehow, no one seemed to notice the disconnect. But something's changed now. I think the disastrous tragedy of Hurricane Katrina opened some eyes. (I'm heartbroken that that's what it took, but maybe it's true that even the darkest cloud has some silver lining.) Our national press, after a Rip Van Winkle-like slumber, finally seems to have the sense that the wool has been pulled over its collective eyes.

The Senate, too, seems to be waking up - at least somewhat. The Democrats locked-down the Senate for a few hours to force Republican leaders to complete the long-delayed Intelligence Committee's report on White House lies and false evidence that supported their march to war in Iraq - and Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) was so angry at their audacity in actually doing their duty as senators that he actually sputtered: "They have no convictions, they have no principles, they have no ideas!" Seriously over the top, Bill.

More good news — they've put off the confirmation hearings on Alito until January. My feeling is, let's take it slowly. In fact, this is a really big decision, which will decide the fate of the Supreme Court for the next, oh, several decades. And Sandra Day O'Connor has pledged to stay on the bench until a replacement for her seat is confirmed. So, Senators, take a few years or so on this one, don't rush.

And especially, don't rush to confirm Alito - here is a man who would take us right back to the days before the feminist movement even began, when women's legal status looked a lot like "property" of her husband. Really, "spousal notification" may sound like a harmless concept in theory - after all, most women would discuss it with their husbands anyway - but you'd better believe that if a woman has decided that she can't tell her husband about an abortion, she has a damn good reasons for not doing so, and it's not anyone else's business.

O'Connor is a true moderate, and has been the swing vote on some of the most important issues of our time, from gay/lesbian rights and abortion to family/medical leave and affirmative action. Guess what? With an extremist like Alito in that seat, joining forces with the newly confirmed Chief Justice Roberts, we can kiss those rights goodbye. O'Connor could (and should!) reconsider her decision to resign - at least, until Bush nominates someone worthy of her legacy. But then, Bush has proved himself completely inadequate in the justice-choosing department.

The elections and ballot measures this week have given me newfound hope. Bush is down to a 19-point approval rating in Maine, home of two moderate Republican senators whose votes we need, and he is now so unpopular that his support couldn't even help the Republicans win in Virginia, an awfully "red" state. The tide seems to have turned - and not a moment too soon.

I'm starting to look forward to the 2006 elections.