by Jackson Baker
o issue has
been more divisive in American society and politics than abortion since
the Supreme Court, almost a quarter-century ago, legalized most instances
of the procedure. From the time of that 1973 Roe v. Wade decision
on, there has been virtually no middle ground between pro and con factions,
and the American two-party system has itself polarized on the issue, with
Republicans gravitating toward the pro-life position and Democrats tending
to be pro-choice.
(Indeed,
both President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, both
now firmly pro-choice, were opponents of legal abortion at the beginning
of their political careers, as was House of Representatives Minority Leader
Dick Gephardt, a presidential wannabe and another convert on the
issue.)
But a political consensus on the issue is forming and may be just around the corner, contends U.S. Senator Bill Frist, the Tennessee Republican who was in Memphis Monday to conduct a seminar at the University of Memphis on educational needs.
Frist, the Senate's only licensed medical practitioner, attracted considerable attention two weeks ago with his denunciation of the partial-birth abortion procedure as being "three inches from infanticide." A measure to ban the late third-trimester operation, except in cases involving specific threats to the life of the mother, seemed sure to pass the Senate this week, with a veto from President Clinton -- who wanted a mother's-health provision added to the bill -- almost certainly in the offing.
But even the pending showdown over a potential override should not obscure the fact that the two sides have come closer than ever on the issue, Frist said during a break in the University proceedings. "You may have noticed that [Senator Minority Leader Tom] Daschle (D-SD), while talking up the health provision, had to say that abortion was `bad.' And he acknowledged the principle of `viability.' That was a kind of first," said Frist, who contended that both parties were now headed toward a rhetorical middle.
Frist himself, who tried to avoid being characterized as either pro-life or pro-choice during his successful 1994 Senate run, acknowledged that legal abortion was "here to stay," a permanent part of the social landscape, and said he felt comfortable with the decision in most instances resting with a woman and her doctor. (In political circles, that generally qualifies as a pro-choice position.)
Frist argued that his own party -- which has included an anti-abortion plank in its platform during the last several presidential elections -- was gravitating toward moderation. "Look at some of the leaders we've had -- Bill Weld, Christie Whitman." Weld, the ambassador-designate to Mexico who is currently governor of Massachusetts, and Whitman, governor of New Jersey, have both been GOP presidential hopefuls.
In effect, the abortion debate may be nearing its end, Frist said, with occasional eruptions like the current legislation constituting rare exceptions. "It used to be that when I addressed audiences or we had large rallies, somebody would always bring up the subject of abortion. Now that almost never happens," he said.
Frist first made waves on the abortion issue back in 1995, when he championed the candidacy of Nashville's Dr. Henry Foster to become Surgeon General. Foster, a nominee of President Clinton, was forced to withdraw because of widespread Republican opposition in the Senate, mainly in response to his once having performed abortions.
* In separate recent meetings, members of the Shelby County Election Commission attempted to galvanize their partisan adherents for 1998's forthcoming election campaigns.
Commission chairman O.C. Pleasant, a Democrat, addressed members of the Midtown-Downtown Democratic Club last Saturday at Shoney's on Union, advising them to make a special effort to target as potential Democratic voters Memphis' proliferating new populations of Hispanics, Asians, and Russian Jews.
Pleasant also urged Democrats to volunteer as poll-watchers in the heavily Republican boxes of outer Shelby County. "We might as well take advantage of our prerequisites. They [Republicans] certainly take advantage of theirs," Pleasant said, naming early voting, motor voter registration, and registration by mail as three Democratic-initiated procedures which, he said, Shelby County Republicans had taken full advantage of.
Addressing the monthly meeting of the Shelby County Republican Women last Monday, GOP Commissioner David Lillard noted, as Pleasant had, that next year's August general election ballot would be the longest in Shelby County history, with upwards of 80 positions at stake.
Lillard said two key issues would shortly be contested by the commission's two partisan factions -- the question of whether the August ballot would list candidates in parallel party rows or in consecutive lists and the matter of how to locate 12 early voting sites. Republicans favor dividing the sites between Democratic and Republican areas, while Democrats want to see them placed strictly according to the county's state House of Representative districts.
NO, THERE WILL NOT BE A REGUlar Marilyn Loeffel update in this space. But it's worth reporting that the Cordova housewife and recently rejected gubernatorial nominee for the State Board of Education has found the silver living to her cloudy recent past: "I've been Borked, and now maybe I can charge fees for speaking," Loeffel exulted during a visit Friday to Governor Sundquist's tent at the Barbecue Contest in Tom Lee Park.
Her reference was, of course, to Robert Bork, the once-obscure jurist who became a celebrity of the Right and frequent after-dinner speaker after being rejected as a would-be appointee of President Ronald Reagan to the Supreme Court.
* Another visitor to Sundquist's tent underscored the governor's frequent dependence on Democratic legislative allies -- some of them unlikely. This was State Senator John Ford, who drew astonished reactions from some of the GOP faithful as he entered Sundquist's barbecue headquarters. ("Give me a break!" was a typical observation.)
The casually clad Sundquist made a point of welcoming Ford, coming right up to him and draping an arm over the well-tailored shoulder of the senator, who was dressed, as usual, in coat and tie.
It will be recalled that Sundquist was the first person Ford called when he was stopped on I-40 two months ago by a state trooper who charged him with driving at 94 miles an hour. Ford, who said he was on his way to a vote in the Senate, complained to the governor that the ticketing process was taking too much time, and Sundquist, at a later press conference, seemed to be saying that he thought Ford had a valid point.
Among other things, Ford was one of three Democratic senators who voted with the governor to abolish the state Public Service Commission, a key Sundquist objective in 1995. The South Memphis senator, chairman of the Senate's General Welfare, Health, and Human Services Committee, is regarded as open-minded in general to gubernatorial proposals and, in fact, as one Republican on hand at Tom Lee Friday noted, Ford generally attends the non-partisan affairs which Governor Sundquist puts on in Memphis and Shelby County.
On Friday, with Sundquist at his side, Ford made a point of saying, "The governor has his money. We put it in the general fund for him," when asked about Sundquist's desire to use some $88 million in reserve funds of the Tennessee Housing Development Agency to balance the budget. In fact, Ford seems to have signed on to a Senate proposal whereby only $38 million would be routed to the general fund, and Sundquist indicated Friday that he would entertain the idea of compromise.
(Another sometime Democratic ally of Sundquist's in the Senate, Steve Cohen, credited the governor with pushing for the passage of legislation last week which made both Memphis' proposed new Triple-A baseball franchise and the Jackson-bound Double-A franchise currently playing as the Memphis Chicks eligible for the same state sales-tax rebate as the incoming Tennessee Oilers NFL franchise.)
* Ford, incidentally, contended that the videotape which apparently showed him kicking out at a Nashville TV cameraman last month was misleading. "He hit himself when he opened the door while he was chasing me," the senator maintained.
As for the no-weapons proviso of his recent pre-trial diversion on a shotgun-brandishing charge, Ford said, "That's no problem. This is the only gun I use now," and promptly whipped out and pointed a pocket-sized Nokia cellular phone. (His successful defense against a previous weapons charge in 1991, it will be remembered, was that his carphone had been mistaken for a firearm by truckers who accused Ford of firing at them on I-40.)
* Two cynosures at the Barbecue Contest were the two-decker tents, virtually adjoining each other, operated by Memphis Mayor W.W. Herenton and U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., respectively. The sometime antagonists generally drew separate crowds, but there was some overlapping of visitors, and both the congressman and his predecessor-father, Harold Ford, paid visits to the Herenton tent. (The senior Ford, frequently rumored to be a potential Herenton opponent in 1999, posed smilingly for a photograph with the mayor's fiancee, Joyce Kelly.)
* FLASH!: One of the more closely guarded political secrets of the season was inadvertently tipped on Sunday, the last day of the Barbecue Contest, when, just before judging time, Ford aide John Freeman visited the tent of barbecue maven John Willingham, winner of two contests back in the '80s.
Willingham, who as a GOP primary candidate last year sought the same congressional seat eventually gained by Democrat Ford, could not resist pointing out that he was providing "a little help" to the congressman's barbecue-making effort.
Presumably, there is no quid pro quo involved for Willingham, who lets it be known that he intends to seek the county commission seat now held by the retiring Pete Sisson.
* In another weekend encounter at Tom Lee, Shelby County Mayor Jim Rout and Convention & Visitors Bureau head Kevin Kane agreed about one redeeming aspect of the previous week's furor over whether sports authority funds should pay for transporting the Tennessee Oilers back and forth from Nashville to Memphis during their season here this fall.
When the Oilers were forced by public opposition to back off their demand for travel subsidy, agreed Kane and Rout, much of the pent-up resentment of many Memphians to the Oiler move here was allowed an escape valve.
Moreover, they pointed out, Memphians got a sense of victory in the showdown which has been denied residents of Nashville, whose public representatives have so far met without demurrer a number of escalating demands on the part of the Oiler management.