Right Wing Schism Continues - Paul Weyrich attacks NRLC for endorsing Thompson

[ck4829]

Rounding out a spate of recent right-wing endorsements of Republican presidential candidates, Fred Thompson has secured the support of the National Right to Life Committee. While not as far-fetched as Pat Robertson’s Giuliani endorsement, the pairing ought to raise some eyebrows, and not just because of Thompson’s rejection of major NRLC priorities such as the Human Life Amendment and federal intervention in Terri Schiavo’s case, or the candidate’s warning that a national abortion ban could lead to putting girls in prison, a notion Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America called “insulting.”

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While NRLC’s endorsement gives Thompson’s sluggish candidacy a much-needed jolt of pep, the group’s apparent compromise on formerly absolute principles may dull the buzz. Veteran clinic protester Joseph Sheidler downplayed the importance of the group he rallied with in the 1980s and 1990s: “With…so many active and so many taking other positions on other candidates…10 years ago it would have been a much bigger influence.”

Other anti-abortion hardliners have been more blunt in recent months. A spat over an anti-James Dobson ad in May led NRLC to come to the defense of Dobson against its own state affiliate, Colorado Right to Life. Colorado RTL President Brian Rohrbough seemed to predict Weyrich’s words when he accused NRLC of selling out:

"What happened in the abortion world is that groups like National Right to Life, they're really a wing of the Republican Party, and they're not geared to push for personhood for an unborn child -- they're geared to getting Republicans elected," he said."

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2007/11/national_right_2.html