First of all, I don't believe any politicians when they state their position on abortion anyway.  It's all bullshit.  Al Gore was pro-life was it suited his constituency and pro-choice when it did not.  Same with Poppy Bush, same with Gephardt, same with Kucinich, same with countless others that state whatever position will cause them the least pain.

Standing for something?  Maybe Brownback stands for something, the most of the rest of them are just mouthing words.

You can put a pox on all their houses are you simply stop taking them seriously.  What I do take seriously is when politicians run anti-abortion in pro-choice states and vice-versa.  

Do you think for a moment that Pataki and Guiliani would be running pro-choice if they were running in Mississippi?  Do you think Nelson would run anti-choice if he were running for Congress in San Francisco?  I don't.

If you want to protect women's rights you need to change the dynamics in a lot of anti-choice districts.  You need to make the election about something much more relevent to ordinary people's lives than overturning Roe and passing annoying parental notification laws.

The reason I am not an absolutist on pro-choice candidates is because most races will have little to no effect on the issue.  Certainly the House of Representatives has no say in whether Roe is upheld or not, although they chip around the edges.  Most of them are going to vote pro or con based on their district regardless of party.  

And I don't believe them anyway.  They say what they think they need to say.

We are so far from being able to break that logic that I am not willing to make it an absolute litmus test for Democratic candidates.

You can use the rhetoric of poll taxes all day long and it will have no effect on me.  Go ahead and take the moral high ground.  

I think we need to find candidates that are willing to stand up for women's rights in disticts were it is difficult to do so, by crafting an effective populist message to oversome the obstacle.  But I'm not willing to oppose everyone who fails to do so, if it means we don't win with the candidates we have.  

It's a long range project.  We can recruit new candidates and the same time we work with some of the suck-ass candidates we are stuck with.  

And if you are going to call me someone kind of sell out, you've got to realize one thing...

I'm sticking up for progressives against this centrist crap.  I'm trying to figure out a way forward.  But I'm not an absolutist like you.  You are alienating your allies with you hot rhetoric.