Reid Supporters Play The Rape Card
posted at 4:00 pm on July 10, 2010 by Legal Insurrection
We have seen this tactic before.
Last January, Democrats in Massachusetts sent out a mailer accusing Scott Brown of wanting to deny medical care to rape victims, because he had introduced state legislation providing health care providers with a religious conscience exemption to providing abortion-related services, so long as alternative arrangements were in place.
The provision proposed by Brown was almost identical to a provision which was in the Democratic health care bill crafted by Harry Reid.
Since such exemption would have applied even to circumstances where the abortion services arose out of a rape, the Democrats played the political rape card by sending a mailer claiming that Brown wanted rape victims turned away from hospitals.
Now we are seeing the rape card used against Sharron Angle because she is pro-Life.
On mulitple occasions, Angle has stated her personal belief that abortion is not justified because life starts at conception. Since Angle’s view is that innocent life should not be taken, the circumstances of the conception make no difference. As a result, Angle’s personal belief is that she would counsel even rape victims who become pregnant to consider carrying the child to term.
Angle’s personal belief is shared by tens of millions of Americans, and is the position of Catholic Church among others.
Predictably, Harry Reid’s supporters have tried to spin Angle alternatively as pro-rape or as someone who wants to force her view on rape victims.
But nothing Angle actually has said supports such conclusions, any more so than Scott Brown proposing a religious conscience exemption made Scott Brown pro-rape or hostile to rape victims.
Is Harry Reid pro-rape and hostile to rape victims because the health care bill has a religious conscience exemption which would apply even in cases of rape?
Playing the rape card is about as low as it gets. But then again, when the goal is to “vaporize” your political opponents, nothing is beyond the pale.
Cross-posted with updates at Legal Insurrection Blog
This post was promoted from GreenRoom to HotAir.com.
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Shows some kind of inner character.
jukin on July 10, 2010 at 4:03 PM
Reid is the personification of evil. There is nothing he won’t lie and/or steal to be re-elected. If Nevadans fall for this man’s poison, our country could be irretrievably be damged beyond repair.
volsense on July 10, 2010 at 4:04 PM
OK, I have something to say here. Yes, life begins at conception…but sometimes you may not want that life to even have a chance. I believe, from personal experience, that evil (or diagnosed as sociopathy, borderline personality disorder, whatever) is inherited. I fully understand if a rapist wants that child never to see the light of day. And I’m sure there are statistics showing that children born of a rape are more likely to commit violent crimes, though I can’t cite one right now.
Yes, abortion is killing an unborn child…but totally “innocent” life? I’m not so sure.
stonemeister on July 10, 2010 at 4:05 PM
Good reminder LI on the similarities between Brown and Angle. Can’t remember, but has Palin endorsed Angle?
Keep fighting Angle. Reid and his ilk are pond scum and will be out of a job this November.
conservative pilgrim on July 10, 2010 at 4:08 PM
.
Translation:
.
Reid’s internal polls show that he’ll lose in November: 35% to 63%.
.
Reid’s son is unlikely to do much better.
.
.
Exit Question: Once the new Congress is seated, can we have the State of Nevada investigate Harry? My guess is that there a lot of people who can’t wait to talk.
Arbalest on July 10, 2010 at 4:09 PM
This is so stupid, it discredits itself.
Who the hell is pro-rape?
Who thinks rape victims shouldn’t get medical attention?
This is so outrageously dumb, someone will say it about Sarah Palin soon, probably in the NYT or WaPo.
Brian1972 on July 10, 2010 at 4:11 PM
Will the New Black Panthers be working to re-elect Harry along with the new and improved Acorn people …
wheels on July 10, 2010 at 4:14 PM
Reid, being a pro-lifer himself, obviously saw this as an opportunity to put some daylight between himself and Angle on the issue, but still…
DubiousD on July 10, 2010 at 4:17 PM
A simple TWO word ad would work … ” HARRY RID ” !!!
aniladesai on July 10, 2010 at 4:20 PM
Desperation time huh.
Dr Evil on July 10, 2010 at 4:24 PM
Harry Rid. *heh*
Mojave Mark on July 10, 2010 at 4:28 PM
Angle counters by playing Nobody in Nevada has a Job Card.
fogw on July 10, 2010 at 4:28 PM
Harry Reid must be worried.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BzQvDVSUD8
Dr Evil on July 10, 2010 at 4:36 PM
stonemeister on July 10, 2010 at 4:05 PM
Good grief. You would hold unborn babies guilty of their fathers’ crimes? That’s a heavy load to carry. So heavy, in fact, that it encroaches on God’s sovereignty.
paul1149 on July 10, 2010 at 4:41 PM
He wants the hospitals to turn away all 1,736 women who were raped because he is against abortion?
Wow, that should be in the Guinness book of world records or something. 1,736 women raped, and they ALL get pregnant. 100% odds.
Daggett on July 10, 2010 at 4:46 PM
Reid’s internal polls show that he’ll lose in November: 35% to 63%.
This though overly optimistic as it is not how it’ll play out in any event. As I recall there are others on the ballot perhaps only registering a couple of points apeice and NV’s unique option of none-of-the-above greatly diluting the opposition to Reid. So the 2way split you describe isn’t even on the table to begin with.
I fear that Gingrich may have called this one right and Reid will be the upset of 2010 pulling only a plurality of the vote. I hope I am wrong as of all the 2010 candidates, Reid assuredly most deserves to be shown the door.
Archimedes on July 10, 2010 at 4:52 PM
Does Nevada need more police on the streets? What percentage of the rapes were by “criminal aliens” living in Nevada?
Dr Evil on July 10, 2010 at 4:56 PM
Since there won’t be anything else to do from Jan to Dec next year—I think it’ll be important for Congress to line up an investigation a week. Panthers, Climategate, Blagogate, and so on…..it ought to be pretty popcorn worthy and actually might help the country.
ted c on July 10, 2010 at 4:56 PM
“none of the above” is on the ballot….
that’s Harry’s golden ticket.
ted c on July 10, 2010 at 4:57 PM
Let the NBPP come out to Nevada and try that sh*t they pulled in Philly.
Nevada has both open and concealed carry. Some sh*thead standing outside a polling place with a stick tries to prevent voters from entering, the good citizens of Nevada will do the world a favor and blow him away like lint.
JohnGalt23 on July 10, 2010 at 4:59 PM
Is Reid a MINO (Mormon In Name Only)?
Shouldn’t his views on conception and abortion align with Angle’s?
Mr_Magoo on July 10, 2010 at 5:02 PM
Since Reid pushed ObamaCare, doesn’t that make him pro-rape as well?
GarandFan on July 10, 2010 at 5:08 PM
I am sure Harry Reid will set the new standard in the days and weeks to come…
Seven Percent Solution on July 10, 2010 at 5:12 PM
I think this whole quote and especailly what I bolded has to be the most evil thing I have ever read here on Hot Air…
CCRWM on July 10, 2010 at 5:18 PM
Harry Reid is a dirty little man and now a desperate one. He will stink to high heaven by November.
Tav on July 10, 2010 at 5:21 PM
Well, that’s very “Gattaca” of you. Don’t you believe in the power of the individual to overcome? Or at least in the chance for an individual to live up to his/her full potential against genetic odds?
I think that’s kind of mean; maybe the commenter just hadn’t thought it through…
Firefly_76 on July 10, 2010 at 5:28 PM
Harry Reid once again shows what a scumbag he is for all to see.
It is very desperate. And since there is plenty of time to rebut this and turn it against him, a smart Angle campaign will make it backfire.
WannabeAnglican on July 10, 2010 at 5:32 PM
Also, as a practical matter, I would think it very hard successfully to play the rape card against a women.
I should also amend my comment to say Reid’s supporters are lowlifes and desperate since they are the ones playing the rape card . . . so far.
WannabeAnglican on July 10, 2010 at 5:52 PM
Reid is a maggot.
rplat on July 10, 2010 at 5:54 PM
Rapists must be a huge, untapped constituency. Why else would all these republicans be supporting them?
/sarc.
LASue on July 10, 2010 at 5:58 PM
Reid is as crony and corrupt as they get. Even if it were true (which it is not) I would rather vote for somebody who supports rape.
exdeadhead on July 10, 2010 at 5:59 PM
Harry knows all about rape. He and his fellow democrats and the democrat President have been raping the American Public for years.
flintstone on July 10, 2010 at 6:19 PM
I’m sure the answer Harry would give about whether he’s pro or anti-rape would depend on whether the woman voted Republican or not.
andycanuck on July 10, 2010 at 6:20 PM
Let’s hope Olberman picks this ball up and runs with it… for our amusement of course.
mjbrooks3 on July 10, 2010 at 6:24 PM
What an outrageous position for Angle to take — that a person whose life has been disrupted by a tragic or evil event ought to try to do all that can be done to take the terrible consequences of the event and turn it to good ends.
Usually we admire those who do such things. Take, for example, the founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving who turned her grief and rage to good ends. But apparently the suggestion that one might take the awful situation of having been raped and become pregnant and turn it into something affirming of life by having that child (whether to keep or place for adoption) is simply evil, though. Sort of puts the lie to notion that the speakers are “pro-choice” and instead reveals them to be zealots for abortions — after all, they are rejecting the notion that someone might suggest a choice other than abortion in such a situation.
RhymesWithRight on July 10, 2010 at 6:37 PM
No, he isn’t saying they are guilty, he is saying that no one with that DNA deserves to live. Obviously that is absurd now, but imagine what will happen when some country decides that genetic engineering is just what they need to make their army more cost effective.
pedestrian on July 10, 2010 at 6:38 PM
Doubting is evil? I said “I’m not so sure”. But you haven’t walked a mile in my shoes, saw what I’ve seen, had your heart torn out and had it handed to you.
Face it, some people are born evil. And some people may want to keep that from happening.
I’m not so sure which way to look at it.
stonemeister on July 10, 2010 at 6:39 PM
The babykillers keep floating this argument.
Unfortunately, the truth is this:
Planned Parenthood’s OWN statistics show that less that one tenth of one percent of all abortions performed are for this reason.
It’s more BS.
PJ Emeritus on July 10, 2010 at 6:44 PM
Why don’t we try some facts before you assume.
Fact: There is no evil gene, children from bad parents are not born with that same predisposition. It is how we are raised that makes us who we are, not our genes.
Only one study has ever been done on rape victims and abortion and here are the results.
Fact: 80% of women who were raped and had an abortion because of the child said that they regretted their abortion.
Fact: Those women who were raped and had an abortion stated that the abortion is what traumatized them more than the rape
Fact: 100% of the women surveyed who carried the child to term after being raped stated that they had no regrets whatsoever. In fact many expressed sentiments that the child was what helped them get over the rape, that it was “the one good thing” that came from it
FAct: none of those children grew up to be rapists.
Why should they kill the child? What did this child do? Did they commit rape? Did they assault someone? Did they violate someone? No, all they did was be conceived.
An unborn baby should not pay for the sins of their father, especially when it will only cause more harm to mother in the process.
Cookies Mom on July 10, 2010 at 7:09 PM
Harry Reid should be asked about what advice he’d give a pregnant rape victim. Presumably (as someone who thinks abortion should be legal but is still amoral) he’d say the same thing Angle said.
Mister Mets on July 10, 2010 at 7:42 PM
You stated alot as if they are facts. You haven’t lived it. NONE of the children of rapists grow up to be rapists? NONE? That doesn’t sound like empirical research. You’re making this stuff up as you go along, which is what Liberals do.
As I said before, from my PERSONAL experience, it’s not that simple a choice whether to keep a baby from a rape, or to have it aborted…I’m not so sure. Phony facts aren’t going to sway me one way or another, they’ll just annoy me.
stonemeister on July 10, 2010 at 7:43 PM
This is a common tactic of liberals. And it works because the only goal is to associate abortion with rape and incest. That’s why they do it. There are very few people who are pro-abortion. Trust me, I know because I’m one of them. Most people abhor abortion except in extreme circumstances and rape and incest are the two most extreme that provoke a knee jerk emotional reaction. It’s rape, actually, that evokes the reaction. Incest is just thrown in there because, well it’s always been argued that way.
One of the reasons liberals hate conservatives so much is because of their pro-life stance. If a pro-lifer doesn’t make an exception for rape and incest, they hate them even more. Liberals see that kind of stance as unreasonable to the point of being deranged. Well, liberals view all conservatives as deranged, but that gives them a reason. It’s extreme. Liberals love to call conservatives extreme. This is one sure way to prove it.
Liberals don’t understand convictions because they don’t have any themselves.
I have a liberal friend who told me she hates Sarah Palin because she’s pro-life and doesn’t make an exception for rape and incest. How cold blooded. I told my friend that people like Sarah Palin are the only pro-lifers I have any respect for.
Whenever I argue with a pro-lifer the first thing I do is to try to get them to admit abortion should be legal in the case of rape or incest. Once I get them to admit that, which is surprisingly easy to do, I’ve won the argument. They’ve just admitted they are pro-choice. The choice to get pregnant is no different than the choice to not give birth. If you really are pro-life, the circumstances would not matter to you. If it does matter to you, you’re pro-choice.
I told my friend that and she just said, “wow, I never thought of it that way before.” She still hates Sarah Palin, of course, but now she has to come up with another reason.
Angle needs to stress her convictions about life, not that they are her “personal” views. There’s not a liberal out there who would believe that for a second.
Jaynie59 on July 10, 2010 at 8:10 PM
I am one of the 80%. And yes indeed the abortion traumatized me more than the rape. That was now 30 years ago and it still traumatizes me. I hardly ever think of the rape and when I do all I feel is a passing ‘yuck’ feeling. That’s me, I’m not speaking for all rape victims. But I think of the abortion frequently and every time I do I am engulfed in sadness and regret. I hate that I listened to the feminist line of being only tissue. I realized it was a baby after it had been slaughtered in my womb and have been avidly pro-life ever since. I know I’m forgiven and all, but there is no ridding myself of the regret of having chosen to end the life of my own child.
Joy on July 10, 2010 at 8:18 PM
I feel very sorry for you, and hope you are seeing someone to help you cope.
I was on the other side, having adopted the child of, well, let’s just say an obviously evil woman. (I don’t want to go into the sordid details). Try as we might, the girl grew up to be a sociopath, ran away from home and is now doing the same evil as the mother (so far, only drugs, burglaries, prostitution, and other bad acts). My wife and I wish we never knew about her, much less having adopted her, for all the good we did.
So with all the evil in the world, would it have been better for the birth mother to have aborted her? As I said before, I am not sure of the answer to this.
stonemeister on July 10, 2010 at 8:32 PM
my how NAZI of you.
Depends of course how old the child was when you adopted her, but it sounds like poor parenting to me.
Slowburn on July 10, 2010 at 8:39 PM
Why don’t you go screw yourself!
stonemeister on July 10, 2010 at 9:05 PM
stonemeister – I know lots of people who have done the ‘evil’ things you speak of who have completely turned their lives around. I would tell you to never give up hope but it seems that you already have. She does not do those things because she is ‘genetically wired’ to do those things.
Joy on July 10, 2010 at 9:27 PM
A lot of strong feelings in this thread; understandably from the personal stories that have been shared. I hope everyone can try and take a deep breath, step back and realize we haven’t walked in the others’ shoes.
stonemeister: adopting a child is a loving act of compassion. Don’t listen to others who remark on parenting. Your daughter may yet come around, give her time.
Joy: thank you for sharing your experience – it brought me to tears. For reasons I won’t state I was briefly tempted at to have an abortion. Today, my daughter is a smart, kind and loving child and I thank God every day that she’s a part of my life.
Firefly_76 on July 10, 2010 at 9:32 PM
Just…hugs.
Chewy the Lab on July 10, 2010 at 9:49 PM
God bless you for sharing. And you outdid yourself here:
itsnotaboutme on July 10, 2010 at 10:12 PM
Scum.
Darth Executor on July 10, 2010 at 10:56 PM
And Dingy Harry is supposedly an upstanding member of the LDS church.
csdeven on July 10, 2010 at 11:01 PM
As a Mormon myself, he isn’t an upstanding member of the LDS Church. Maybe Harry Reid should remind himself what the LDS position on abortion is.
Here’s a good article about how Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are not good followers of their faith.
Conservative Samizdat on July 10, 2010 at 11:40 PM
Is it rape-card rape-card?
or
rape-rape card?
or
rape-rape card-card?
or rape card-card?
Inanemergencydial on July 10, 2010 at 11:44 PM
They already did during the campaign. They accused her of making rape victims pay for their own medical rape kits in Wasilla.
txhsmom on July 10, 2010 at 11:59 PM
The claims that genes won’t make the offspring of a rapist a rapist is pure BS. Is it a given they will be one? No, but it easily could. To claim otherwise isn’t arguing from fact.
As stonemeister found out, the genes that were dominant in their adopted daughter were the same as the mother. It could have been the opposite situation, but wasn’t.
Lastly, I support 100% the right of rape victims or incest victims to abort the children the are the product of such horrible acts.
Some of the people saying the kids should be given up for adoption remind me of libs who want to force things on others solely for their own ego gratification. Tell you what, when you can go through carrying a kid for 9 months, then suffer the pain of childbirth in place of the victim, you can dictate what they should do. Until then STFU.
Hard Right on July 11, 2010 at 5:10 AM
valianthunter on July 11, 2010 at 7:23 AM
Reid is the current living breathing personification of how absolute power corrupts absolutely.
What baffles me is how this bookish looking gnome managed to get himself in the place of authority that he is right now in the first place. He has never ceased to look like the type of guy who would be more at home wearing a milkman’s uniform, instead of exerting power in the Senate.
pilamaye on July 11, 2010 at 8:52 AM
This stuff doesn’t work anymore. It’s been overused.
AnninCA on July 11, 2010 at 10:35 AM
Joy on July 10, 2010 at 8:18 PM
However, you should have the right to choose for yourself. Not everyone feels as you do.
AnninCA on July 11, 2010 at 10:37 AM
I respect your right to consider a fetus an unborn child. However, until viability? I don’t agree.
AnninCA on July 11, 2010 at 10:39 AM
This attitude is one reason that no GOP candidate will win over moderate, independent women.
They are nearly always appalled at the far-right attitudes on this topic. I know most are OK with no tax money being used. However, the entire “baby-killer” stuff is offensive.
They will not join that group.
AnninCA on July 11, 2010 at 10:41 AM
@stonemeister
Buddy, the more you talk, the more it becomes clear that you shouldn’t. Then again, there’s a chance that you’re actually a dude from a liberal website who’s trying to make everyone else look bad. Honestly, that would actually be better than the alternative, that is, that you actually do believe the things you’re saying.
Anyway, I don’t think anyone’s surprised by these kinds of tactics. Liberals love to play defenders of women’s rights, but we see what they really think of women when guys like Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and maybe Al Gore manhandle them.
R. Waher on July 11, 2010 at 6:20 PM
Killing babies is offensive.
hawkdriver on July 11, 2010 at 7:21 PM
Conversely, it is also a fact that some born of a rapist will not become a rapist. What to do about them?
Stonemeister should ask the same question without the words adopted in the sentence and without his premise of evil being passed from parent to child. Some individuals choose evil despite the fact the parent has not chosen evil. What to do about them?
Did you choose the circumstances of your conception?
The adopted family takes a lifetime responsibility for the child by choice.
The mother’s pregnancy is around nine months. How much time is too much time to ask of the mother?
Abortion is about the death of an unborn individual. Said individual’s life is terminated before the individual has the benefit of choice and chance.
You, and I, are enjoying this benefit by stating our opinions. The aborted never have this opportunity.
Put yourself in the shoes of an unborn individual. Would abortion be acceptable to you then?
rukiddingme on July 11, 2010 at 9:07 PM
Thank you for sharing. May you find peace in you heart.
Indeed it is. Welcome home!
rukiddingme on July 11, 2010 at 11:50 PM
= your heart.
It is time for sleep.
rukiddingme on July 11, 2010 at 11:52 PM