Why not?
Twice, two different constituents have asked Michael Arcuri what his position on abortion is, and Arcuri has not answered.
Once, when a constituent asked the question about abortion on the discussion forum at the Michael Arcuri campaign web site, the question was deleted by the Arcuri for Congress campaign.
The next time, when a second constituent used the discussion forum to ask Arcuri what his position on the legality of abortion is, the entire discussion forum was removed from the Arcuri for Congress campaign web site.
Over on the right hand side of this page, you will find a link to the Arcuri for Congress web site. I have changed that link to point to the address of the discussion forum that the Arcuri for Congress campaign web site has deleted. I will keep the link pointed to that address until Michael Arcuri answers the question.
Michael Arcuri, what is your position on abortion?
There are three reasons it bothers me what Michael Arcuri has done with his discussion forum.
1. First of all, it reveals to me that the Arcuri for Congress campaign thinks it's a problem when voters have a voice. It gives the appearance that Arcuri is afraid of answering voters' questions in general.
2. The abortion issue is a vital one for this election. South Dakota has just banned all abortions - even when women are raped, or when girls are the victims of incest. There will surely be a Supreme Court case challenging Roe v. Wade, and Bush has stacked the court to overturn the right to an abortion. Abortion is, therefore, an issue that the Congress will have to deal with. We need to know Arcuri's position on the issue. I'm starting to wonder: Is Arcuri Pro-Life?
3. Rahm Emanuel, the Democratic Party boss from Illinois, has instructed all his "recruits", of which Michael Arcuri is one, to avoid talking about abortion. So, this brings up a disturbing question: Is Michael Arcuri taking orders from Rahm Emanuel? We need a Congressman who can be his own man.
We don't have Sherwood Boehlert to kick around any more. So, it's time for the Democratic candidates to get serious. Michael Arcuri, what is your position on abortion?
Given that the Arcuri for Congress campaign has removed the discussion forum from its web site, the New York Liberal web site has created its own Arcuri for Congress discussion forum. Until Arcuri decides to actually listen to voters again, you can go over there for a no holds barred discussion of ALL the issues, including abortion.
17 comments:
2.Stop using Pro-Life as the opposite of Pro-Choice!!! The opposite of Pro-Choice is Anti-Choice.
3.Where did you get this information?
I use the term Pro-Life because it's the term that other people use, and part of my purpose in this blog is to be part of the debate. People who are using a blog search engine will be looking for the term "Pro-Life", so it's useful to have the term in an article.
I am, myself, Pro-Choice. I recognize that the issue is really about much more than just the choice of whether to have an abortion. It's really ultimately about the freedom to make choices about our own sexual lives, something a lot of Republicans, and some Democrats, seem to hate.
As far as information, well, I'm putting the pieces together. Rahm Emanuel is head of the DCCC, and the DCCC provides not just money and infrastructure, but strategic advice to Democratic candidates that it "recruits" to get special support.
Do a search around the news and news blogs, and it quickly becomes clear that Rahm Emanuel has set a strategy that the 2006 Democratic congressional campaigns he runs will avoid addressing the issue of abortion - even though abortion rights are under attack at a scale that is unprecedented in the last 30 years.
For example, one political blog describes the situation as follows:
"Jane at fdl sees the muscle-flexing of Rahm Emanuel, grand pooh-bah of the D-triple-C as particularly disrespectful of bloggers’ efforts, “For everything we do trying to back progressive candidates, Emanuel and the DCCC seem to be doing everything they can to undo it. As case in point, she cites Rahm’s open assertion that the Democrats will not use the South Dakota abortion ban as a campaign issue moving towards November. "
For all I know, Michael Arcuri might be Pro-Choice. The problem is that he's not saying, and we the voters have the right to know. So, we need to flush Arcuri out on this issue, and force him to tell us where he really stands.
Another problem with Emanuel is that Iraq is not on his list of top problems on his own website and he has praise for Condoleeza Rice which is absolutely pathetic for a Democrat.
So it seems he trying to avoid alienating the pro-Christian right and the pro-Israel forces and perhaps even supporting them?
Just a watered down version of Bush.
Boehlert was pro-choice and he won the District a dozen times. It's not rocket science to understand that position is not going to hurt you.
Ray Meier is anti-choice.
I want a choice, not two anti-choice candidates.
I'll betcha Bruce Tytler comes out pro-choice. That position could actually invigorate his candidacy.
Mr. Tytler is pro choice, he has no trouble answering that question and has come out with it before.
We also have to remember that Arcuri is Italian and most likely Catholic, even though most Catholics are pro choice, there is a chance that Arcuri is anti-choice. He is in a very republican county.
Women are a huge factor in the electorate, especially in this district.
http://irregulartimes.com
/index.php/archives/2006/03/18
/arcuri-abortion/
I accept the search engine part, but I am sick of surrendering my language, and real concepts to the right. Do me and others like me a favor please. If you have to say pro-life to attract the search engines, go ahead, but add anti-choice parenthetically for those of us who are p.o'd about wishywashyness on CHOICE
It's an easy question. Many of us think it's the primary question.
Time's up. If this was a web glitch, say so. If you have no comment, Jon's assessment of your fear of the issue is seeming credible.
arcuri is pro-choice.
now can we get back to the fact that ray meier is not.
Okay, "anonymous", whoever you are...
Why Michael Arcuri say so on his web site? I want to hear the words coming out of his mouth.
I could come on here and make an anonymous post and say Ray Meier is Pro-Choice. That wouldn't make it so.
Why did the Arcuri for Congress campaign delete a question someone asked him about abortion on their discussion board? Why did the Arcuri for Congress campaign then delete the entire discussion board when someone asked the question again?
We need straight answers, and we need them straight from the Arcuri campaign.
If you don't like that the abortion issue is dominating discussion of the Arcuri campaign, there is one easy way to remedy that -- have Michael Arcuri make a clear, public statement that he is Pro-Choice or Pro-Life (anti-choice, as I've been nagged to say).
So far, Arcuri has avoided making such a statement on the record.
This is an easy issue to resolve. Why won't Arcuri just do it? Put the discussion board back online, and then have a statement by Arcuri on the web site. Easy as pie.
I'm waiting.
Re your poll: Perhaps change the last choice to read, "I would not vote for Michael Arcuri but not soley because of his failure to state his position on abortion."?
My position: I won't vote for Arcuri in the primary because I'll be voting for a candidate I think is better, but I would never vote for an anti-choice candidate, including Arcuri if he were one, in any primary, including this one. But also, I'm not voting for Arcuri for reasons unrelated to abortion, but that would also include abortion if it turned out he were anti-choice.
I suspect he isn't anti-choice, but of course he needs to say so.
The maddening thing about the DCCC and the Democratic establishment is precisely their aversion to strongly held, clearly articulated positions ON ANYTHING!
http://groups.msn.com/UticaAreaDiscussions/messageboard.msnw
Here is a good link to a message forum about Utica politics, just thought I'd show you it, if you havn't visited already. I could tell you exactly why Arcuri fails to answer that question, but it would need to be in a private manner, or you could just call his EX-wife and/or EX-mistress and ask them. Just to clear-up some misinformation regarding Leon Koziol's statements during his announcement, he IS pro-choice and will clearly say so as soon as his website is finally finished. The reason for the delay in the website is due to allowing a college student to design the site, who then messed it all up, therefore he has started from scratch.
1:10 - why has Mr. Koziol not registered with the FEC? If he declares himself a candidate and fails to register, he is breaking the law?
1. Does he intend to keep his law license?
2. Who is supporting a law breaker for Congress?
Leon Koziol is well aware of the laws regarding the FEC, and trust me, he is well within his rights. Does he plan on keeping his law license? Many, many before (including Arcuri) have tried to set him up and the results have always been the same. You all may not like Koziol as a candidate, but there is no doubt that he has championed many great causes for the people as an attorney.
Your implications about his law license will accomplish nothing more than invigorating his resolve to expose Arcuri for what he REALLY is.
I have been following this interesting blog along with one other, so I hope you don't mind that I post the same thing in both places.
I have watched the people of America fall right into the hands of politicians by allowing abortion to be a wedge issue. The more time we spend on it, the less likely we all are to notice the other things everyone is up to. They do it on purpose. They love it. Don't let them do it to us again. I don't care what any of these candidates' opinion on abortion is. They aren't nominees to the Supreme Court and their opinion is uesless. But still, we will see the republicans use it again. Why are we doing it to ourselves as well? If Democrats don't become more united we will be crushed by Republicans again. They know how to pull our chains don't they, hey? Are we going to let them teach us how to do it to ourselves as well?
I'm a woman. I think abortion is between God and the woman who makes this decision. I don't think it's anybody else's business and it's certainly not some slime ball politician's business. Same goes for religion. But we allow them to put these wedges between us and success at the polls. Keep everybody busy fighting about abortion while we rob them blind. How clever they are in the end. Does any of us really believe they care about children, when they talk about "saving" the unborn and then couldn't care less if the same children die of starvation? No. It's their wedge issue. If we removed every politician in DC who participated in an abortion in some way, there would be an echo. Yet, they are seemingly so passionate. We all know why. It's how they rile the base. Are we going to help them do it again?
I am interested in what the candidates have to say about the billions we have spent in Iraq. I am interested in their opinion of the fifty million working Americans who can't afford extortionist health care insurance. I want to know what they think about our national debt and the fact that countries like China own most of our debt paper. I want to know what their plans are to stop the industrial-military complex that is taking over our country. The last thing I care to hear is their opinion on abortion. It's none of their business and we already have enough to worry about with the current borderline facist appointees to the Supreme Court. Are we really going to let this wedge happen to us again? To be honest, I don't care if Dracula runs on the democrat party ticket, I will vote for him. But I will tell you this....I know Mike Arcuri and he's no Dracula, and I am more than fairly certain that the other candidates hoping to run on our ticket aren't either.
Now I know that there is competition for this slot on the Democratic ticket, and that is what America is all about. I will support the person who wins a primary if there is one. And if there is one and your personal candidate doesn't win, will you do the same? Because if you don't, the Democratic party will be dead meat once more.
All I ask is that you consider not clouding the most important issue of all with the deliberate wedge issue that has been used well to keep everyone in America distracted from what is happening in our corrupt congress. The important issue? Taking back America by getting rid of congressional fascists and hypocrits who want to rule our lives and tell us how to live whilst robbing our wallets and lining their pockets. Hypocrits who want to tell us what is right when they need to pay attention to what's right themselves. Does any of us REALLY think any of our Democratic candidates for Congress falls into that category? And do we really want to force any of our candidates to alienate a predominantly Republican district and lose as many votes as possible over an issue that doesn't even belong in this race at a time when we know darned well it's the Supreme Court we need to worry about when it comes to abortion? Because if we do, we will play right into the hands of the opposition....again.
Peace to all of you and please I do hope we do not make our own selves the enemy so that we might help those who are hoping we will do just that.
C.
ONE TRICK PONY!!!!
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