Barack Obama Picks Pro-Abortion Gov. Tim Kaine to Head Democratic Party
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 5, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Barack Obama is adding to the pro-abortion record he is building as the incoming president and he has tapped pro-abortion Virginia. Gov. Tim Kaine to be the next chairman of the Democratic Party. Kaine will step into the handpicked role later this month and mold the party to promote Obama’s agenda.
Kaine was one of the handful of people to make the short list for Obama’s running mate last year and now the outgoing governor will be one of the point people for promoting Obama’s message.
Obama is expected to make the announcement official later this week and Kaine may operate the party from Richmond, Virginia until January 2010, when he is expected to head to Washington. That’s because Kaine still has one year left to serve of his term as governor.
Kaine’s virtues include the fact that he’s not a Beltway politician and won a gubernatorial race in a state where Republicans have dominated the presidential landscape recently.
Some observers have suggested that Kaine is pro-life on abortion or would help Obama moderate his pro-abortion image, but that’s not the case.
Kaine claims a personal, religious opposition to abortion, but nonetheless supports legal abortions. That’s not different from Democrats in presidential elections past like Mario Cuomo — who made famous the "personally opposed but" statement that has rankled pro-life advocates.
Kaine told the Washington Post, during his 2001 campaign for Lt. Governor, that he "opposes efforts to restrict abortions" and that he "opposes efforts to require a parent’s consent before a minor gets an abortion."
Then, facing more intense scrutiny in his 2005 gubernatorial bid, Kaine changed positions and said he favors abortion limits.
However, his flip-flop didn’t catch leading pro-life advocates off guard.
"When Timothy Kaine was running for Lt. Governor, he supported abortion," former National Right to Life political director Carol Tobias told LifeNews.com in 2005. "Four years later, after seeing pro-abortion Democrats continue to lose election after election, Mr. Kaine now sings a different tune."
Tobias said she didn’t believe Kaine’s supposed change of position is real.
Kaine only became Virginia’s governor because pro-abortion state Sen. Russell Potts, a Republican running because he disagreed with pro-life Republican nominee Jerry Kilgore on abortion, siphoned off enough votes to let him win.
Kilgore also noticed Kaine’s true pro-abortion colors and called his attempt to moderate his pro-abortion stance disingenuous.
"It is a classic example of Tim Kaine recognizing the audience and delivering the message that the audience wants to hear," Tim Murtaugh, Kilgore’s press secretary said [in 2005].
"On the one hand he [runs] . . . down his supposed list of pro-life credentials and on the other he gathers with liberal Democrats at a fundraiser and uses all code words of the pro-abortion crowd," Murtaugh said.
Recognizing Kaine as the more pro-abortion of the candidates in the race, the director of NARAL’s Virginia affiliate said, "Between these two men, we see more hope … in Kaine’s candidacy, and we are eager and willing to work with him on these important issues should he be elected."
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