By Dave Andrusko

When you read Part Two of TN&V for Tuesday, I hope it's clear that they both address a core dimension of the battle for the hearts and minds of what used to be called "the mushy middle." If most Americans are very uneasy with abortion in general, and (most certainly) abortion on demand, what do you do if you are the leadership of the Abortion Establishment to keep them mollified?

Among all your priorities, what would be #1? To persuade the electorate that you are not--repeat NOT pro-abortion--merely "pro-choice," which is (as we've been told ad nauseam ) "as American as apple pie." But if people ever got wind of how bogus is your cover story, how meaningless is your professed concern to "reduce the need for abortion," you'd be in a heap of trouble.

Tim Tebow

Enter the fascinating, rapidly changing debate over CBS's decision to run a paid spot featuring Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam Tebow. I know I've written about this several times. But this is much more than a discussion about a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl. It is crucial to understand what is at stake and why the debate has shifted so dramatically against the NOWs and Feminist Majorities of this world.

If you are the leaders of these organizations, before all this took a turn for the worse, you already knew a couple of very uncomfortable truths. One of the most threatening is that women, whether "educated" or not, whether they call themselves "feminists" or not, simply don't have time for you anymore. You are, to be brutally honest, a relic.

Sally Jenkins is an author and columnist for the Washington Post, a self-professed pro-choicer who is appalled by the assault on Tim Tebow. Jenkins just destroyed the usual suspects today in a withering column titled, "Tebow's Super Bowl ad isn't intolerant; its critics are."

Let me offer just a few words, because I really do want you to read her piece in its entirety. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/01/AR2010020102067.html.

Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins

You can't argue for thinking outside the box/rejecting stereotypes and then demand that every woman thinks just like the aging warriors at NOW. That is an insult to anyone, female or male, young or old. Jenkins' irritation with group think comes through in the first clause of the first sentence of her column: "I'll spit this out quick, before the armies of feminism try to gag me and strap electrodes to my forehead…"

Forgive me if this seems both redundant and simplistic to the point of absurdity, but you can't be "pro-choice" and then go ballistic anytime a woman talks about how she exercised her "choice" by choosing life. As Jenkins writes, "Tebow's 30-second ad hasn't even run yet, but it already has provoked 'The National Organization for Women Who Only Think Like Us' to reveal something important about themselves: They aren't actually 'pro-choice' so much as they are pro-abortion." As sports announcers love to say, "Dagger!"

To Jenkins Mrs. Tebow exercised her choice which resulted in the birth of a young man of character, conviction, and courage. "Pam Tebow and her son feel good enough about that choice to want to tell people about it," Jenkins writes. "Only, NOW says they shouldn't be allowed to."

Jenkins ends by reiterating that she couldn't disagree more with Tebow. But she is intellectually honest enough to grapple with complexity and angry that NOW treats women (not to mention the rest of us) as too stupid to walk and chew gum at the same time--watch the Super Bowl and have an adult conversation (and think for ourselves!).

There is a lot more--a LOT more--in Jenkins' column that is well worth your time.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/01/AR2010020102067.html.

Please let me know what you think by writing to daveandrusko@gmail.com.

Part Two