Yes, Joni Ernst is an extremist, thank you
by digby
Elias Isquith makes note of some extremist GOP candidates' slicker rhetoric in this campaign:
The Senate campaigns dominating the politics of Colorado and Iowa right now both feature Republican nominees who ideologically come from their party’s hard right. Colorado’s got Rep. Cory Gardner, a photogenic and talented young politician who happens to hold extreme views on all of the Christianists’ biggest issues — abortion, contraception, “religious liberty” and same-sex marriage — but is nevertheless slightly ahead in his neck-and-neck race. Iowa, meanwhile, has state Sen. Joni Ernst, who is similarly radical, similarly able to mask her extremism with a smile and similarly ahead in her Senate campaign.
Yet there’s one more similarity between these two respective Republicans, and it’s one that may tell us a lot about the future of Christianism in the GOP: Both have previously supported — and are now desperately trying to disown — initiatives pushed by Christianist activists to add so-called personhood amendments to the constitutions of their states.
The question is whether they will be able to hide from their fringe-dwelling recent past. From the looks of it they will have no problem. Iowa's Joni Ernst, who will make a lovely addition to the Ted Cruz faction, voted for a "personhood" amendment to the state constitution. When confronted about by her Democratic opponent Bruce Braley in a recent debate she offered up a nice anodyne response she had clearly been fed by the DC strategists: "That amendment is simply a statement that I support life." Uh huh.
Anyway, the Washington Post decided to do a fact check and this is what they vomited up:
Braley goes too far with his scary scenarios, especially because he repeatedly said the amendment “would” have the impact he described. Ernst is on record of not opposing contraception—though she also favors punishing doctors who perform abortions. We concede that the legal terrain in murky, and the impact uncertain. But that’s all the more reason not to speak with such certainty. Braley thus earns Two Pinocchios.
That's right. Braley is the big liar because he can't prove to a certainty that a constitutional amendment that would declare a fertilized egg a full human being will lead to the banning of abortion and many kinds of birth control. So she gets to say she's "fer life!" and Braley is portrayed as the extremist.
Kevin Drum says:
Ed Kilgore is dumbfounded by this kind of treatment, and so am I. I just don't get it. Kessler is not some babe in the woulds. He knows perfectly well exactly what the goal of this amendment is. It's possible, of course, that Democrats in Iowa will prevent Republicans from enacting enabling legislation. Or that the US Supreme Court will stand in the way. But why does that matter when the intent is so clear? Ernst may say that "I will always stand with our women on affordable access to contraception," but that's plain and simple weaseling. And it doesn't even matter. Republicans in the legislature can keep their hands completely clean and simply let activists take things to court. With an amendment like that in place, no judge could turn away a suit that asked for a ban on abortions or in-vitro fertilization or certain forms of contraception.
I get it. Unlike the local fact check which rated Braley's accusations true, Kessler doesn't want to bring on the flying harpies if he doesn't absolutely have to. So he can give this one to them by employing a literalism so stringent that he'd need to see some kind of testimony that this personhood amendment was intended to ban abortion.
Perhaps he should have asked the fellow who proposed it:
More than 20 Iowa state senators have signed a resolution intended to outlaw abortion in the state, but even a key supporter said Friday it likely won't get a vote.
Republican Sen. Dennis Guth of Klemme said the resolution he sponsored would make abortion illegal by amending the state constitution to define life as beginning at conception.
"This would send a message to the Supreme Court of Iowa that the people of Iowa want to defend life at all stages," he said.
[...]
Also signing the resolution were: Republican Sens. Ken Rozenboom, Kent Sorenson, Amy Sinclair, Nancy Boettger, David Johnson, Jake Chapman, Mark Segebart, Bill Anderson, Joni Ernst, Rick Bertrand, Tim Kapucian, Hubert Houser, Jack Whitver, Mark Chelgren, Michael Breitbrach, Jerry Behn, Brad Zaun, Randy Feenstra, Roby Smith and Democrat Sen. Joe Seng.
To pretend that Ernst did not intend to ban certain kinds of contraception and outlaw abortion is simply ridiculous. But with the help of the Washington press nobody will know about it. So that's good. For her.
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