Text 25382, 95 rader
Skriven 2006-11-21 22:51:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Liberals
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This is why they will only govern for two years...

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http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/17/liberal.wishlist.ap/index.html

Liberals make wish lists as Christmas, new Congress near
POSTED: 3:42 p.m. EST, November 17, 2006 

NEW YORK (AP) -- After years playing defense, liberal advocacy groups 
see the Democrats' takeover of Congress as a long-awaited chance to 
convert some of their goals into law. Their wish lists include workplace 
protections for gays, a broader hate-crimes law, and a multi-pronged 
push to reduce unplanned pregnancies.

A Republican president remains in the White House, armed with veto 
power, and Democratic control of the Senate is as slim as could be. Yet 
gay-rights, feminist and abortion-rights groups are nonetheless pleased 
by their brightest prospects for legislative victories since 1994.

"It's exciting to get off the defensive," said Cecile Richards, 
president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She hopes the 
new Congress will stay away from debate on abortion restrictions and 
instead work on a bipartisan basis to curtail unintended pregnancies.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said "common sense" 
initiatives might include requiring health insurance companies to cover 
birth control, requiring that emergency contraception be available at 
hospitals for rape victims, and ensuring that sex education for young 
people includes accurate information about contraceptives.

The president of the largest national gay-rights group, Joe Solmonese of 
the Human Rights Campaign, said he has high hopes for two long-pending 
proposals that failed to get through the GOP-controlled Congress. One 
would outlaw employment discrimination against gays, lesbians and 
transgender people; another would include them among the groups 
protected in federal hate-crimes legislation.

Gay activists also would like to see Congress repeal the "don't ask, 
don't tell" policy that prohibits gay members of the military from being 
open about their sexual orientation -- but a push for this may come 
somewhere down the road.

"Everyone remembers the fight President Clinton had when he made this 
his first major political issue in 1993," said Aaron Belkin, director of 
a University of California, Santa Barbara think tank that studies gays 
and the military.

"While opinion on letting gays serve has moved leaps and bounds since 
then, the new Democratic Congress is not likely to come out strongly on 
this one from the get-go," Belkin said.

Solmonese indicated that leading gay-rights groups will be patient with 
the new Democratic leadership, not pushing to have their issues be at 
the very top of the 2007 agenda.

"What we've got is a new and respectful Congress that's open to our 
community, to learning the specifics of our issues," he said. "To stress 
right now -- 'This is what we want and this is when we want it' -- would 
be premature."

Feminist groups such as the National Organization for Women were 
generally at odds with the GOP leadership in Congress and have welcomed 
the power switch, which will include Rep. Nancy Pelosi serving as the 
first female speaker of the House.

NOW President Kim Gandy said her organization's legislative wish list 
includes adding gender to the existing federal hate-crimes law, 
tightening controls over silicone breast implants, and improving options 
for working mothers through enhanced family leave policies and child 
care options.

Some conservatives have expressed hope that -- on abortion issues, at 
least -- Democratic stances in Congress might be moderated by the 
election of several anti-abortion candidates. But other leaders on the 
right, such as Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, doubt 
these Democratic newcomers will sway policy.

"Instead, anticipate the fiercest assault of our time against 
abstinence, marriage, life, good judges, and religious freedom," Perkins 
wrote this week in the National Review. "Pro-life Democrats are likely 
to be marginalized in positions where they have little influence."

Another conservative leader, the Rev. Louis Sheldon of the Traditional 
Values Coalition, asserted that the gay-rights bills likely to advance 
next year will infringe on the rights of those who condemn 
homosexuality.

"All Americans must be prepared to endure serious threats to their 
freedom of speech, their right to make employment decisions as business 
owners and their religious freedom in the business world," Sheldon said.


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