ARNOLD'S FLAWS: Conservatives are hopeful that California GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R.-Calif.) will continue to pursue a low-tax, lower-spend agenda in the nation's biggest state, but two bills he signed last week showed the limits of his "moderate" appeal. He signed a bill banning the sale and the possession (with an exemption for current owners) of some .50-caliber rifles in his state. The guns are used by big game hunters as well as target shooters. Schwarzenegger had already come out in favor of the extension of the federal so-called "assault weapons" ban that expired on September 13. Also last week, the governor signed a bill forcing California businesses to offer the same benefits to domestic partners-either opposite-sex or same-sex couples living together-that they offer to married couples. Said the Sacramento-based Capitol Resource Institute, "Many private business owners in California have religious and moral convictions against recognizing, condoning and giving benefits to domestic partnerships to the same degree as married spouses." Said the institute's Karen England, "This bill will force many business owners to violate their faith and conscience.
TOOMEY'S ADVANTAGES: Retiring Rep. Pat Toomey (R.-Pa.), whose conservative primary challenge to liberal Republican Sen. Arlen Specter almost unseated the long-time legislator earlier this year, has become honorary chairman of the Young Conservatives of Pennsylvania. "Young Conservatives of Pennsylvania has a very important role to play in the political arena in our Commonwealth-to promote conservative policies and candidates among our next generation of civic leaders," said Toomey. And said State Chairman Chris Lilik, "Congressman Toomey's courage to challenge the status quo has inspired an army of young Pennsylvania conservatives to organize for future legislative and political battles."
SAVE THE PLEDGE: The House Judiciary Committee voted 17 to 10 on September 15 to pass the Pledge Protection Act (HR 2028), which is the bill sponsored by Rep. Todd Akin (R.-Mo.) to remove legal challenges to the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance from the jurisdiction of the federal courts. All those voting for the bill were Republicans, and all opposed were Democrats. Said House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R.-Wis.), "This legislation places final authority over a state's Pledge policy in the hands of the states themselves. If different states come to different decisions regarding the constitutionality of the Pledge, the effects of such decisions will be felt only within those states, and a few federal judges sitting hundreds of miles away from your state will not be able to rewrite a state's Pledge policy."
JUNK SCIENCE: Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) continued his jihad against economic prosperity with hearings on September 15 on the regional effects of so-called "climate change," the increasingly popular replacement for the more specific "global warming." "Pursuing his policy of favoring alarmist predictions over balanced debate, the Commerce Committee chairman leads a stacked witness list chosen to bolster support for his own legislative agenda," charged the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Said Myron Ebell, CEI's director of Global Warming & International Environmental Policy, "Forecasting climate catastrophe state by state may be helpful in scaring the population of a particular part of the country, but it isn't scientifically honest."
PRO-LIFE PAYS: In the hard-fought swing state of Minnesota, Democratic pollster John Zogby has found that Protestant President Bush's pro-life stand may be winning him Catholic votes away from nominally Catholic Sen. John Kerry (D.-Mass.), who is radically pro-abortion. Polls by Zogby International found that "60% of a sampling of Catholics in Minnesota say they were likely to vote for Bush, compared to 44% of the overall state voters who said they would re-elect the President. By comparison, 51% of all Minnesota voters polled said they plan to vote for Kerry, while 36% of Catholics said they would do so," reported the Catholic News Service last week. Zogby also found that in Iowa, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania-states which, like Minnesota, have powerful pro-life networks-Catholics are polling more strongly for Bush than is the general population. However, Zogby found that in Nevada and New Mexico, Catholics were more likely to favor Kerry than the overall population.
