Just got back from meeting Nick Lampson who's running against DeLay

[WestHoustonDem]

I must say I liked him. I asked the question about his stand on women's reproductive rights and didn't like the answer, especially the part about voting for the partial birth abortion ban. However, to his credit, he sought me out afterwards and told me he is pro-choice but hasn't come up with the wording he wants to use to express that. Then again, this isn't his first candidacy and his position and message about women's reproductive rights should be strong and consistent by now. So I'm not convinced he is the best candidate but ofcourse I will support the Dem who opposes DeLay.

[efhmc]

1. Many Texas politicians have this self, same problem and

will need to be ambiguous to win. So sad but so true.

[finecraft]

3. Our Louisiana politicians have the same problem

Our politicians only come in two flavors: far right Republicans and moderate right Democrats. And to think, at one time this was the land of the Long brothers.....what the hell happened? :shrug:

[efhmc]

12. Insane, self-righteous, greedy, money driven, people

hating, right-wing republicans who are in the process of killing populism.

[wakeme2008]

2. I really liked Morrison and donated to him

in 2004. It is too bad he had to go back to RL and work :(

[applegrove]

4. I'm against partial birth abortion. Nothing odd in that. Unless the

woman's life is in danger...it is an awful thing.

I think we could be less trite about access to abortion. To me, as a liberal, that means all other reproductive health tools should be available and have easy access too. All tools. And not with these bullshit pharmacy preachers.

And none of this stopping the condoms by teaching only pledges on no sex till marriage. I think that is a fine thing for some people. A bad thing for others. As always..there should be much in the way of choice.

[WestHoustonDem]

5. There is no such thing as a partial birth abortion

[applegrove]

6. Whatever the procedure is then. It is awful. n/t

[muse]

7. And it is already

only done because of medical necessity. This is a non-issue that was created by the republicans to placate and consolidate the anti-abortion crowd.

[johncoby2]

8. got to agree on this.

It is a very rarely used procedure and it is only in the most dire circumstances where the life of the women is in jeopardy and the fetus also is at high risk. Correct me if I am wrong on any of this.

I thought I heard only 32 women had the procedure last year. (or the year before)

But, we will NOT find a perfect candidate, but we should find one that will listen to us. Nick Lampson has ALWAYS come to our help when asked and he does seek input.

Hey. I like Richard Morrison also, but his stance on womens rights were not what many expected.

[applegrove]

9. And if we agree to making it rare, we can agree that it is bad. I take

no issue with a politician who wants to say it is bad. 99% of the population of the USA agrees.

It is a truism.

[muse]

10. yeah, but you don't have to make laws against it

That's just politicizing something that is totally a medical issue. Of course, it is awful. It's only done when there is something horribly wrong and it's a terrible thing to have to go through.

[lastliberalintexas]

14. It just IS rare- we didn't agree to make it rare

Late term abortions account for fewer than 1% of the abortions performed in the US. The right wing has NEVER- I repeat, NEVER- been able to produce a single instance of a late term abortion being performed for anything other than medical reasons.

Stop buying into and repeating the right wing bullshit lies.

[CoolOnion]

11. It's very rare...

...you would never have heard of it had it not been hyped by the right-wing freaks.

[Lisa0825]

13. Thanks for asking him about it.

I agree that he SHOULD know how to answer that by now. His answer to that and gay marriage really ticked me off during his last campaign. But whatever... gotta vote against Tommy Boy.

[lastliberalintexas]

15. Lampson's decent

He's certainly not uber liberal, but he's very good on most issues. And he's stayed solidly pro-choice aside from the supposed PBA ban, despite threats of excommunication from the Beaumont Diocese. Funny that they never went after the local pro-war Catholics, but what the hell- life's only sacred as a zygote.

Anyway, Lampson is best on the kitchen table issues of old Dems like FDR and Truman, which makes sense considering that his original district comprised Beaumont, Port Arthur and Galveston- basically the only union strongholds in Texas. And he's always gotten high marks from the NAACP, another good thing considering the large African American population in SE Texas.

He doesn't have the presence of Jack Brooks (but then who does :) ), but he's a solid Dem in Texas. He won't make everyone happy, but he's solid- and probably about as good as we could get in the 22nd right now.

And I'd take Lampson any day of the week and twice on Sundays if I could trade him for my right wing Nazi wannabe named Kevin Brady. Gotta love that re-re-districting.