Go, Gina! You’re the best! This shows that conservatives aren’t being fooled by Ashcroft’s endorsement of Tammy Faye.

What good has it done for Right to Life to endorse any GOP candidates, anywhere. The GOP has majorities in Missouri, had them in the Congress,and the heads of the Missouri and US Executive Departments in Matt Blunt and George W Bush, all their support has gotten was a snap vote to ban gay marriages, nothing else!

Meanwhile we have: an unjust GOP war in Iraq, and; the GOP supporting the execution of children, the mentally ill and retarded, and; the GOP denying pre-natal care to the poor resulting in more abortions, and; the GOP denying healthcare to the unborn, infants, children, the disabled and the elderly, and; the GOP demonizing those who already contribute to our economy and wish to do so legally by becoming legal residents and citizens of the US, and; the GOP bailing out Wall Street and leaving Main Street to bear the brunt of the mortgage crisis.

The GOP has used people of faith for their votes and money without delivering for at least the last 20 years.

It’s about time that people of faith held the GOP and its cynical hypocrites acccountable and voted them all out of office!

Vote Democratic in ‘08!

Tim, you’re an idiot.

> the GOP supporting the execution of children

The execution of teenagers who commit vicious, brutal murders. I’m sure you oppose the death penalty for anyone, so quit hiding behind kids and mentally retarded people.

> demonizing those who already contribute to our economy and wish
> to do so legally by becoming legal residents and citizens of the US

Or, put another way, supporting the enforcement of immigration law against those who entered our country without proper authorization. If you drive 65 through Maryland Heights, they give you a ticket. If you don’t pay, they put out a warrant. But if you come here illegally, there’s a whole industry of folks like Tim who say we should welcome you with fresh baked cookies.

> GOP bailing out Wall Street and leaving Main Street to bear
> the brunt of the mortgage crisis

Well, even a broken clock is right twice a day. There should be no bailouts for anyone - not for the idiots who made the loans, and not for the idiots who took out the loans. Let ‘em all suffer the consequences.

> It’s about time that people of faith held the GOP and its cynical
> hypocrites acccountable and voted them all out of office!

As opposed to Democrats, who proclaim their love for gays but can’t turn their backs on gays fast enough when it comes to the issue of marriage. Democrats, those great advocates for the working man, who want to tax him to death, spend his social security money on a financially unworkable health insurance scheme, and leave us so deeply in debt that our grandchildren will be slaves to the Chinese who are buying up the T-bills. Those kind, caring Democrats, who will drive up our food prices with this stupid ethanol subsidy, but refuse to drive down gas prices by allowing us to develop domestic petroleum resources.

Sounds like you haven’t been getting much for your money either, Tim.

> Vote Democratic in ‘08!

Not likely.

My favorite Tim line is the GOP unjust war. Is he so stupid as to not realize that nearly every democrat voted in favor of using force in Iraq?

Are there GOP operatives barring the door of healthcare facilities, refusing people access? If so, I support Tim and his law degree in attempts to rectify that situation. I took my son to the doc a week or two ago and no one attempted to stop me from getting care for him. Where is this denial of healthcare Tim?

Back to the subject at hand…
Note that Gina is the only candidate for the 7th that has received an endorsement from MRL, who could easily have chosen to endorse more than one candidate. Gina is firmly and passionately committed to the right of every person to life, and it shows.

The momentum is definitely on her side, coming right on the heels of the MSTA endorsement. Gina doesn’t just pay lip service to being pro-life, and she’ll be a strong advocate for children after they’re born, too.

Pro-life issues and education are two of the most important issues to the voters of the 7th. Dr. Loudon has wrapped up both the Missouri State Teachers’ Association endorsement AND the Missouri Right to Life endorsement? She’s cleaning house!

I am glad to know education is important out in west county, but you might find that the MSTA endorsement is not worth much. I am pretty sure most teachers are NEA members, not MSTA members.
Any word on who they are endorsing? Not Jane Cunningham for sure!

This seems like a strange endorsement. I wonder if Right to Life forgot the flap on this blog and on Fired Up about Gina Loudon getting a campaign contribution from the lobbyist for the “adult entertainment” business and her husband, the lame-duck senator, sneaking language banning lap dancing out of a bill between his committee and the floor?

Junkie, the only thing more pathetic than repubs going after other repubs with illegitimate left wing charges is when they force them. MRL is interested in LIFE. Hello?

Jake,
If I were your editor, I’d say your story ignores some real questions. It’s kind of a “man bites dog” story for a major organization to endorse a “newcomer” over two veteran House members who have previously been endorsed as pro-life. Shouldn’t a reporter call RTL to ask why?

G. Loudon is running for her husband’s seat — seeking his third term, some might say. She has no record of her own. But J. Loudon has a voting record. If one looks at the 2007 Missouri Right to Life Legislative Scorecard, Sen. Loudon is listed as voting for the MO RTL position 6 of 28 votes. For comparison, if you look at Sen. Joan Bray, a pro-choice senator, she was with RTL 13 of 28 times. I guess that makes Joan Bray twice as committed to right-to-life as John Loudon. Now it is possible that Mrs. Loudon holds different views from her husband. But she sure ain’t telling that to voters! I’d love for someone to ask MO RTL how they came up with this endorsement.

Campaign Worm - I won’t pretend to understand Missouri Right to Life’s endorsement process. But I just looked at their legislative scorecard (link below) and Jeff Smith also voted with MRL’s position 13 times, while Chuck Gross only voted with them 6 times. Over in the house, Tammy Faye voted with MRL 8 of 19, the same number of times as Jeanette Mott Oxford, who is a member of Planned Parenthood and would certainly call herself pro choice.

http://www.missourilife.org/news/2007/august2007.pdf
Scorecard starts on page 3.

Nick,

I think you’re backing up my point that RTLs endorsement is not necessarily based on any objective reality of whether a person is right-to-life or not. So maybe it’s not really news.

MRL has no logic to their endorsements. This is just plain sad.

I think some of you are confusing MRL’s scorecard with their endorsements.

It’s all too true that Missouri Right to Life has used some ugly political tactics, just because they were mad about the fact that they couldn’t control every pro-life legislator when it came to MOHELA and the embryonic stem cell issue. (They scored the most pro-life legislators as having less “pro-life votes” than extremely liberal, pro-choice legislators.) They certainly don’t know how to treat even their best friends and allies.

BUT, their score card is different than their endorsements. They may have scored Chuck Graham and Joan Bray as having more “pro-life” votes than pro-life legislators, but you are NEVER going to see MRL ENDORSE those senators.

Endorsements are an entirely different ball park. They give those out carefully, to the legislators/candidates who they believe will really and truly fight for protecting the unborn.

As crazy as MRL acts at times, the fact that they’ve endorsed Gina Loudon makes me think that their core leadership knows her well enough that they think she will fight hardest for pro-life issues, or that she will be more effective when it comes to getting pro-life stuff done in the Missouri legislature. Maybe both. Maybe her husband’s record of getting pro-life/anti-abortion laws passed gave them a few ideas of what she might do.

Anyway, yes, MRL scorecard info can be very misleading, but an **endorsement** from them *does* say a lot about a candidate vs. the opponent(s).

mary.alice,

The first part of your post is a perfect statement of why the last part is irrelevant.

This is true… When MRL can’t control legislators like Neal St Onge, and Jane Cunningham then they turn to “new” blood. It is funny though how MRL seemingly forgot that Mr. Loudon unintentionally attempted to legalize abortions performed by anyone a couple years ago.

EB White wrote a lot more wisdom into his title character in Charlotte’s Web than some on these boards possess. Before praising Wilbur in her web, Charlotte quips, “People are very gullible. They’ll believe anything they see in print.”

WilsMarkus, either you are very gullible, or you are deliberately perpetuating a lie. The term in question was “spontaneous abortion,” aka NATURAL MISCARRIAGE. I am as staunchly pro-life as they come (one of the first 200 to order a new MO Choose Life license plate!), and even I have had the heartbreak of a “spontaneous abortion.” What Senator Loudon passed was compassionate prenatal care for women like me.

http://www.im4it.org for anyone else interested in the license plate…

Gina,
I loved meeting you Saturday night, in T&C. You’re ‘real’ and ‘get it!!’
A lot of people, don’t. I gave you my numbers, please write/call me personally. How can I help?
As another mother of 5…. (I know you remember me.)YOU GO GIRL!
Connie