The disingenuous Harry Reid, abortion addition

Robert Novak:

WHEN the Supreme Court Wednesday upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act passed by Congress in 2003, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told a press conference: "I would only say that this isn't the only decision that a lot of us wish that [Justice Samuel] Alito weren't there and [former Justice Sandra Day] O'Connor were there." Does that mean Reid was repudiating his Senate vote for the bill restricting abortions? No, he told me, he was talking about other decisions by Alito.

Reid reflects a dilemma on abortion among Democrats. Partial-birth abortion is massively unpopular. Its prohibition is favored 61 percent to 28 percent in the most recent poll (Fox News, March 2006). But the abortion-rights lobby is adamant against any erosion of the Roe v. Wade decision.

The leading Democratic presidential candidates - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (who voted against the ban in 2003), Sen. Barack Obama, former Sen. John Edwards and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson - lashed out against last Wednesday's ruling.

But 17 Democratic senators voted for the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act (as it passed, 64 to 34). Their ranks included Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Judiciary Committee chairman, and Sen. Joseph Biden, a former chairman - both rated 100 percent for 2006 voting by NARAL Pro-Choice America. Biden, who is running for president, and Leahy seldom withhold their comments on anything. But they have been silent on the court's abortion decision.

Reid, another of the 17 Democrats, had a 65 percent pro-choice record in 2006. He tried to resolve his quandary last week by noting that the Supreme Court's 5 to 4 lineup on partial-birth abortion flipped when Alito replaced O'Connor last year (with Reid opposing his confirmation). Reid's preference for O'Connor over Alito Wednesday was widely interpreted as backtracking on his 2003 vote. The newspaper Roll Call said Reid "seemed to think the Supreme Court's decision was unwise."

"Not at all," Reid told me, when I asked him. Recalling his many votes against partial-birth abortion, he indicated he supported the court's abortion decision. "I just don't like what Alito has done on other cases," he said. What other cases? "I can't recall," Reid replied, but promised aides would let me know.

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Thomas Carper, the low-profile junior senator from Delaware, was one of the 17 Democrats who voted to ban partial-birth abortion. He said last week: "I think a number of people who voted for it thought that the court would ultimately strike it down."

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This pattern is the same one Democrats took on the War in Iraq. They voted it for it because they knew the public supported it, but they really were voting for what they hoped would be a policy of bluff like that used by Clinton. Republicans are not immune from this disease since many of them voted for campaign finance on the hope and belief that the Supreme Court would find it unconstitutional. But Reid is particularly disingenuous on his criticism of Alito since he raise no criticism of any of his previous decisions before this one. From his gaffe on the war being lost to his incoherent rant against Alito, Reid is not looking like a wise statesman or leader.