Economic conservatives have heaved sighs of relief at the generally moderate appointments President-elect Obama has announced since swamping the hapless McCain campaign early last month. Social conservatives don't have nearly as much to celebrate.
Obama's new Domestic Policy Council director, leftist New York lawyer Melody Barnes, is an "unyielding" advocate of abortion, according a post in the Clerical Whispers blog, reproduced below. Barnes is a veteran of Emily's List, a pro-abortion PAC that cut off contributions to longtime pro-abortion allies who voted to ban partial-birth abortion.
Obama may be more successful than any of us predicted. "Real change" may indeed be on the way. "Country club" (economic) conservatives" never much cared for the unwashed social conservatives in the first place. High-church aristocrats like Danforth and Warner could scarcely conceal their contempt for the unsavory Fundamentalist - mostly Baptist and Pentecostal - Republicans whom they considered necessary but impudent allies.
Could it be that Obama is making a bid for their loyalty, re-aligning the American political landscape to put down the ragged 40-year Evangelical insurrection once and for all?
One of the programs under Barnes' direction will be Faith-Based Initiatives. She could slash funding, but Obama thinks like a chess player - several moves ahead. How much wiser for him to direct "faith-based" funding into pro-abortion denominations and nominally Christian outreaches, and as patronage for the Black church, which will be reliably pro-Obama when he runs for a second term.
Clerical Whispers
Fides - Libertas - Veritas
November 28, 2008
New Obama domestic policy director has close ties to abortion lobby
President-elect Obama has selected as Director of the Domestic Policy Council Melody C. Barnes, a New York lawyer with an “unyielding” record of abortion rights advocacy.
According to the White House web site, the Domestic Policy Council oversees major domestic policy areas such as education, health, housing, welfare, justice, federalism, transportation, environment, labor and veteran's affairs.
It also oversees the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
Barnes is a former Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, where she led the left-wing think tank’s Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative.
She has also served as a board member of EMILY’s List, a group formed more than two decades ago to support pro-abortion rights women candidates. Over the years the group has raised millions for Democratic women candidates who support unrestricted access to taxpayer-funded abortion on demand.
EMILY’s List has even cut funding from pro-abortion rights politicians who voted to ban partial-birth abortion.
Barnes has also lobbied on behalf of the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR).
Carlos Polo, director for Latin America at the Population Research Institute, has linked the Center for Reproductive Rights to a strategy to force permissive abortion laws upon Latin America.
Members of CRR have proposed using international litigation to “develop new standards for the protection of reproductive rights” and to force local authorities to ignore their country’s laws and introduce changes that would allow abortion and “reproductive health” services for teenagers.
Barnes was a former aide to Sen. Ted Kennedy and was his chief counsel at the Senate Judiciary Committee from December 1995 to March 2003. According to the New York Times, Barnes is associated with a “bitter dispute” over confirmation of a federal appeals court judge in 2002. At the time, charges were leveled against Barnes and another aide to Ted Kennedy that they tried to influence the outcome of a high-profile affirmative action case by delaying the confirmation of a judge who might have ruled against affirmative action.
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, in a Monday statement voiced criticism of Barnes’ selection as head of the Domestic Policy Council.
Claiming her “forte” is working with the “religious left,” Donohue reported that Barnes has been described by the left-wing journal The Nation as a “dyed-in-the-wool progressive.”
“She wants to overturn all restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, and her passion for abortion rights is so unyielding that she has served on the board of EMILY’s List and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund,” he charged.
Donohue also alluded to a controversy over pro-life Catholic and evangelical jurists allegedly being denied approval to serve as federal judges. Without mentioning specifics, he said Barnes had denied bigotry was an issue in the delay.
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