Sam Brownback

Janet Porter was not involved in the Right Wing "prayercast" earlier this week, so she is issuing her own call to prayer and fasting to stop health care reform because "we are literally in a battle for our lives and our freedom":

Faith2Action, founded by Janet (Folger) Porter, is today issuing a national call to prayer, fasting and action until Christmas Day.

The two reasons for this urgent call, one week before Christmas, are (1) the pending cloture vote in the U.S. Senate on government-run healthcare, and (2) the last-minute attempts to reach a global agreement as the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference comes to an end.

“Even though Christmas is less than a week away, we are literally in a battle for our lives and our freedom," states Faith2Action President Janet Porter. "If the Senate votes to put the Government in control of our life-saving treatment options, we are all in grave danger. This lethal legislation includes abortion funding and the denial of treatment needed to save our lives. We are also in danger of surrendering our Sovereignty to global governance," added Porter. "Please pray that God will intervene to block a treaty from being signed in Copenhagen that would sign away U.S. sovereignty and issue unprecedented taxes and control over our lives and businesses.

"Please join us for a time of prayer, fasting, and action all the way to Christmas--calling on our Senators to vote against Cloture on the government takeover of health care," Porter added. "Please also pray that Senator Ben Nelson will continue to stand strong against forced funding of abortion on demand and vote against cloture which would bring the government-run healthcare bill to the floor for a vote. If he doesn't, Americans would be forced to violate their consciences in funding abortions through their tax dollars for the first time in 30 years.

"All I want for Christmas is my life and my freedom. But it's going to take prayer, fasting, and action to achieve that." Porter emphasized.

And for good measure Sen. Sam Brownback, who was a featured participant in the "prayercast," appeared on Porter's radio program yesterday to discuss the Republican effort to stop health care reform, promising that they would do everything possible to "string this thing out" and make sure that this "monstrosity" does not pass and agreed with Porter when she declared that "our very lives are on the line":

We've written several posts over the last few month about how Sen. Sam Brownback's standing among the Religious Right has fallen due to his support of Katheleen Sebelius' nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, leading many right-wing activists to distance themselves from him.

Today, Dave Weigel has a good piece in The Washington Independent noting how, despite seemingly no help from anyone in the Senate, the Religious Right has managed to make the vote on Sebelius' nomination into a "controversy" all on its own:

The battle against Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kans.), President Obama’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has gone better than many pro-life activists had hoped. Yes, it’s true that Sebelius is expected to be confirmed after an eight-hour debate and cloture vote are held in the Senate today. It’s also true that activists have not managed to dislodge the support of Sebelius’s home state senators, Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, both Republicans — an embarrassing setback that has prevented the Sebelius nomination from becoming quite the abortion rights showdown that they had hoped for. But they can count some small victories.

“Going into this, there didn’t seem to be any opposition,” said Wendy Wright, the president of Conservative Women for America. “I was at her hearing, and that morning, I was reading news reports about how she was going to ’sail through’ the Senate. Now I’m reading reports about the ‘controversy’ around Kathleen Sebelius. You can attribute that to what the grassroots have done here.”

The vote on her nomination is scheduled for today and she is expected to be confirmed and conservative and Religious Right leaders are basically saying it is all Brownback's fault:

Before that vote, the anti-Sebelius coalition will hold a press conference on the Hill making the case against her. Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) will make public a letter of opposition to the nomination that, as of press time, eight other conservatives had signed. Still, opponents of the governor have been frustrated by the early and consistent support for Sebelius from Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kans.), a social conservative who is retiring in 2010 to run for governor of Kansas.

“This nomination should be more unpopular than it is,” grumbled one GOP Senate aide. “Brownback’s hesitation and his months of holding off on substantive criticism of Sebelius has basically frozen the ability of pro-life senators to fight as hard as they would like to. It’s tough. It’s very difficult for the pro-life leader in the Senate to mobilize his allies when he’s moving in the other direction.”

Although recently Brownback has been hinting that he might be rethinking his support for Sebelius' nomination, his explanation for supporting the nomination has been that installing her at HHS will get her out of the state and away from a possible run for Brownback's open Senate seat in 2010 and that whomever heads HHS will be pro-choice, so it may as well be someone from Kansas.

Needless to say, right-wing activists aren't buying his excuses, with one local activist saying its like justifying support of Hitler: 

“We’ll be extremely disappointed if Sen. Brownback doesn’t change his mind,” said Tom McClusky, vice president of government affairs for FRC. “That will play a role in any of our future work with him.”

...

It’s all a bit much for Kansas activists to stomach. “Those guys in Washington don’t think like we do in Kansas,” said David Gittrich, the long-serving state development director of Kansans for Life. “It might be smart politically to get the governor out of Kansas, but it’s really hard for me to wish her on the nation. I’d rather have Hillary Clinton running health care than Kathleen Sebelius.”

According to Gittrich, when Brownback turns his sights on the governor’s race he’ll gave to “reestablish his credentials as a pro-lifer” and explain his vote. “All the pro-life votes in the world don’t make up for supporting Kathleen Sebelius,” said Gittrich. “This is like saying, ‘I’m against the Holocaust and Nazi Germany but I’d like Hitler to be in charge of the health care center.’”

It has been a rough couple of weeks for Sen. Sam Brownback.

Since he announced that he was supporting Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, he has watched the Family Research Council pull out of the Values Action Team meetings he oversees and his reputation as a pro-life champion has taken a beating.

And now, to make matters worse, his home has been reportedly burglarized:

Burglars made off with thousands of dollars worth of property stolen from the Topeka home of U.S. Senator Sam Brownback last week ... The Senator's wife Mary Brownback returned home around 1:30 p.m. Thursday to find the items missing. Officials say a computer, a television, a video game, a check book and 100-pieces of jewelry were taken.

At least there is some good news on the horizon for Brownback, coming in the form of this admission by one of his biggest critics that pro-life activists have a very short memory and probably won't hold his current heresy against him when he runs for governor next year:

A pro-life activist predicts that if Senator Brownback (R-Kansas) runs for governor in his state, he will still receive the support of the pro-life movement despite his controversial decision to support the nomination of pro-abortion Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius for Health and Human Services secretary.

...

Mark Crutcher, the president of Life Dynamics, Incorporated, says pro-life Republicans know they can "pull a stunt" like Brownback did because pro-life activists often have short memories.

"Right now there's probably a lot of anger in Kansas, I would assume, and a lot of people are sickened by Brownback's sell-out," Crutcher shares. "But let's say that he runs for governor and he continues to tell people, 'Oh, I'm pro-life. I did that for some other reason' -- or whatever excuse he uses for his sell-out."

According to Crutcher, that explanation may just work on the voters. "The thing that bothers me [about] the history of the pro-life movement is that once the initial anger and fervor of the moment goes away...if he runs against some pro-abort Democrat, we'll...rally behind this guy."

Last week, Crutcher was blasting Brownback for his willingness to "throw the unborn under the bus for some political advantage" and saying that the pro-life movement has been "stabbed in the back by people like Sam Brownback so many times" that it should have learned its lesson by now.

But apparently the only lesson to be learned from this entire ordeal is that Republican politicians can stab pro-life activists in the back whenever it suits their needs and fully expect to maintain their political support.

Over the last few days we noted that Sen. Sam Brownback has been pilloried by various anti-choice activists for his decision to support the nomination of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be the next Secretary of the Health and Human Services, which culminated with the Family Research Council announcing that it was withdrawing from his "Values Action Team" over his stance.

And frankly, it doesn't look like the outrage is going to dissipate any time soon as more and more activists continue to pile on and ratchet up their rhetoric:

Mark Crutcher, president of Life Dynamics, Incorporated, says Brownback -- a self-professed pro-life Catholic -- "abandoned" the unborn by backing Sebelius.

"I think it's typical of what we've seen over the years when somebody's commitment to the unborn is political rather than a core value with them," says the pro-life leader. "It's like the difference between a politician and a statesman."

Crutcher says Brownback's desire to become the next governor of Kansas may be driving his support of Sebelius. "All of Brownback's flowery words in the past don't really mean much," he says. "When push comes to shove, he'll throw the unborn under the bus for some political advantage -- and that's what's happened here."

In addition, Crutcher says the pro-life movement has been "stabbed in the back by people like Sam Brownback so many times" that the movement should have learned the lesson that the measure of a pro-life lawmaker is not what he tells you he believes, but rather what he will do to protect the life of the unborn.

On a related note, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, who last year said that Sebelius should stop receiving Communion until she publicly repudiated her stance on abortion and made a "worthy sacramental confession," has weighed in on her nomination, calling it "particularly troubling." 

He also sat down with Our Sunday Visitor for a discussion about the nomination, saying that he "personally [finds] it offensive that [Obama] would choose a pro-legalized-abortion Catholic to head this office" and faulted Catholics who are supporting her, saying that "they certainly can’t support her because she’s faithful in living the teaching of the Church on the life issues."

Asked by the Kansas City Star if that position meant that Neumann would now be telling Sen. Brownback that he too should not be taking communion, a spokesperson said it was unlikely:

A spokesman for the Kansas City, Ks. archdiocese said Thursday that Archbishop Joseph Naumann is unlikely to suggest to Sen. Sam Brownback that he not take the sacrament of communion, as he has for Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

"I don't think he's (the Archbishop) going to have a position on him (Brownback)," said Carroll Macke, spokesman for the archdiocese.

...

Asked if the Archbishop's views on Brownback constituted a double standard, Macke said: "I don't know."

That is about the only good news Brownback has gotten on the Sebelius-front since he announced his support for her confirmation ... and when not getting barred from receiving communion is the best thing to happen to you, you know times are tough.