Obama 'Present' Votes on Choice Don't Add Up

The above video comes from Barack Obama's official presidential website. It's meant as proof that his "present" votes on choice were the right thing to do and supported by Illinois NOW. However, the truth is quite different from what Lorna Brett is saying in the video. How do I know? Just today I've been trading emails with Bonnie Grabenhofer, IL NOW State President. She's pushing back hard on the outright misinformation in Obama's YouTube video, because what Brett is saying in it is evidently pure fabrication.

Below is part of the email Grabenhofer has sent out, which I received via email from readers. I have confirmed with Bonnie that she sent it. She's also very adamant about getting the truth out about Obama's "present" votes, which don't pass the smell test any more than Lorna Brett's video that was made on Obama's behalf.

I thought I'd take a moment to try to add some clarity to the anti-choice Present votes in IL.

Lorna Brett was president of CNOW from 1996-1998. She was not president at the time we were lobbying on these bills. Five of those votes occurred in the 92nd General Assembly session in 2001. NOW records indicate that she hasn't been a member since 1999. She was not there when we were lobbying against these bills. She is using her very old affiliation with NOW to try to validate her criticism of Hillary Clinton.

Voting Present on those bills was a strategy that Illinois NOW did not support. We made it clear at the time that we disagreed with the strategy. We wanted legislators to take a stand against the awful anti-choice bills being put forth. Voting Present doesn't provide a platform from which to show leadership and say with conviction that we support a woman's right to choose and these bills are unacceptable.

The Present strategy was devised to give political cover to legislators in conservative districts. Barack Obama did not represent a conservative district; he could have voted No with very little negative consequence in his district.

- Bonnie Grabenhofer
IL NOW State President

Obama's "present" votes do not explain his willingness to provide cover for conservatives when he was in the Illinois senate, which is his record, at the expense of taking a stand on women's civil rights. Frankly, I could care less what rating Mr. Obama gets from Planned Parenthood or any other group. I care what Obama does when asked to take a stand.

Obama's actions do not match his talk, any more than the video he's been pushing tells the truth. That's because Obama's willingly to reach across the aisle and bring people together, while also offering cover to conservatives, trumped taking a stand on an issue critical to women's civil rights. His let's make a deal style belies the substance at the heart of this issue. It's anything but leadership.

Follow Taylor Marsh on Twitter: www.twitter.com/taylormarsh

Comments

[itmaybetoolate]

I'll vote for the first one to say that he or she will reverse every unconstitutional act committed by bushie. (I won't hold my breath.)

[timm0]

All I could find on his site were links to that video in the blogger pages, that is, NOT Obama and not any official spokesperson.

[BeyondKen]

The woman whose Senate seat Obama took, Alice Palmer, would not have voted 'present' on such important issues. But she never had a chance.

Apparently feeling 'entitled' to the Senate seat do to a 'back-room' deal he had cut, Barack Obama paid lawyers to force Sen. Palmer (and 3 other opponents) off the ballot.

According to David Jackson in the Chicago Tribune:

“A close examination of Obama's first campaign clouds the image he has cultivated throughout his political career: The man now running for president on a message of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by leveling the playing field, but by clearing it. His overwhelming legal onslaught signaled his impatience to gain office, even if that meant elbowing aside an elder stateswoman like Alice Palmer.”

[midtown]

What doesn't add up is Taylor Marsh's understanding of how "present" votes work in the Illinois State Legislature.

[OtayPanky]

The Clinton Surrogates at work. I mean, really, just what are these folks smoking?

They pick lame-o non-issues that have no legs, and (like this one) that have already been thoroughly deconstructed.

And then...THEY ATTACK.

Please Taylor, be careful with that butterknife, otay?

[jazzence]

Interesting that Ms. Marsh failed to mention that Bonnie Grabenhofer supported Blair Hull's political campaign, even after allegations of spousal abuse. So much for moral judgment.I take this argument and this author's sources with a grain of salt. Don't believe me? Here http://archpundit.com/blog/2007/12/07/hes-so-unprincipled/

[midtown]

It's getting old, Taylor.

[itmaybetoolate]

Thank you for this Ms. Marsh. I agree - watch what people do, not what they say they will do. I see repeated examples of Obama's pandering. When he says he will build a bridge, I believe it is on the backs of women, gays and lesbians, and true blue democrats who will vote for whoever is put forward as the candidate.

[LeeFromVA]

Taylor, Please keep up your posts. They are helping the Obama campaign very much. Your cheap shots remind people why they dislike Hillary. Thanks!

[jungpatawan]

Remember the old saw that goes "if you remember the Sixties then you weren't there?"

If you think you understand the Illinois Legislature then you've never been there.

We have more individual units of government than any other state in the Union. We elect governors that no one can stand, but everyone keeps voting for. People vote more after death than they ever did in life.

We INVENTED the word "clout."

Hillary Rodham could never have made it in politics here. So she decamped for Arkansas and landed in New York.

JP

[bookerone]

If it happens that I am put into a position where I may have to make a choice on voting for Obama or McCain....I will vote present

[DHeil]

Dear Taylor:

Thanks for countering all the pro-Obama propaganda on this site. Great job highlighting Obama's "present" votes. We need everything we can to keep my esteemed colleague from Illinois on the ropes. Bob Kerrey did his part with the "Hussein" drops last month. Bob Johnson and his reference to Barack's drug use - cool, wasn't it? And Bill, what can I say? I just love that man! Sockin it to Obama every day. Thanks for your part, as usual. Love ya, girl.

Hil

[Marrob]

This whole voting "Present" crap with Obama makes me sick. It's like that Kyl/Lieberman vote he didn't cast but slammed Hillary for her vote. It' like my dad us e to say, you can't complain if you don't vote. Maybe Obama should try that.

[GhostOfSchlesinger]

So, LET ME GET THIS RIGHT . . .

The author is quoting an email from the same people that referred to the mixed reaction of media to Hillary's emotional moment in New Hampshire as a "gang rape?"

I mean, we know these folks have a deeply entrenched relationship with the Clinton's. But are they not going a little too far into the surreal sleaze for which Clintonians have been repeatedly flagged?

[GhostOfSchlesinger]

And you've missed a little something . . . certainly by accident, I'm sure, yes?

"Present" votes serve not just the purpose of "cover" but also - as I'm sure you don't know, and gosh you're really sorry cause no one ever told ya' - to reserve the right to amend said legislation.

But you didn't know that, did you? No one, either officially or "unofficially" on Hillary's campaign staff, would EVER stoop so low as to misinterpret or even slightly harm the poor little helpless mammalian truth, now would they?