Third Way Dispatch

March 31, 2006

The United States Senate, Washington DC

Dear Senator:

We write to endorse and urge the passage of the bipartisan immigration legislation passed out of the Judiciary Committee by Senators Arlen Specter and Patrick Leahy. We believe that this legislation — which is based on the McCain-Kennedy bill — is tough where it needs to be, fair where it ought to be and provides a practical solution that addresses America’s immigration problem.

As the Senate prepares to take up the issue of immigration, everyone in this town is nervous.

We can thank Governor Rounds and the Republican South Dakota Legislature for one thing – they may have spurred a new kind of debate on abortion. Their recently-passed law to criminalize all abortions may become known as the law of unintended political consequences.

It was not long ago when press coverage of the abortion debate consisted of two buzzwords: choice and life. Up until the 1990s, the message from pro-lifers centered upon life, murder, infanticide, blockades, and fetuses in jars. But then they got wise and changed their tune from the absolutism of banning abortion to regulating it. On the pro-choice side, however, the messages have largely stayed the same: the right to choose, non-interference with the doctor-patient relationship, and the need to protect women’s health and women’s rights. Not surprisingly, the life movement began to gain support and the choice side watched the Congress, Presidency, and State Legislatures slip away.

We have just returned from 28 days straight in the field. Taking that first shower after getting back to the rear has never been so heavenly!

This last stint in the field was the culminating phase of our four-month pre-deployment workup. Now that we have finished our training, we are preparing to embark very shortly for Iraq to begin our seven-month tour.

Our destination in Iraq is no longer confidential, so I can share that at this point. Reporters were embedded with us during our last phase of training and articles have now been published about both our training and our mission. We are headed to Fallujah, where we will be responsible simultaneously for training Iraqi soldiers and conducting counterinsurgency operations.

Last year, the National Republican Congressional Committee had two very special guests at their gala dinner honoring President Bush: porn star Mary Carey and adult film producer Mark Kulkis. The NRCC noted that the two had ponied up their dough – $2,500 each – so they were happy to have them. Indeed, so were many of the gala guests – an NRCC spokesman said he was “surprised by the number of people who wanted their pictures made with her last year.”

All of that should have been just a wee bit embarrassing, given the pious posturing about family values that we hear from the President and his political allies.

But apparently, it wasn’t embarrassing enough – Roll Call reports today that Ms. Carey is coming back for this year’s presidential gala. The sequel – NRCC Party Girl Two – is out this week at a massive Washington ballroom near you.

Some in Congress are taking a different approach to pornography. Senator Blanche Lincoln and a number of her colleagues have a bill that would require real child access prevention measures on Internet porn sites and would impose a massive excise tax on online porn. We think that’s the right approach to online pornography – regulation and taxation, not invitation (to dinner with the President). (Read our Message Memo on online pornography.)

Governor Rounds just today signed into law South Dakota’s near-total ban on abortion. With this devastating moment for personal liberties comes a long-awaited break for progressives. For too long now, progressives have been losing the battle of reasonableness with moderate voters, whom we call the “abortion grays” (see our issue brief Who is Winning the Abortion Grays?). Here’s our chance to turn things back around.