By Dave Andrusko

Part Two is an important update on abortion and health care "reform." Please send your comments on either Part One or Part Two to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you'd like, follow me at www.twitter.com/daveha.

Obviously, the topical story of the day is the two stunning pro-life gubernatorial victories yesterday–the size of the margin in Virginia and the fact that a Republican could win at all in New Jersey. But first things first.

Pro-abortion Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is pushing for a vote this Friday on health care "reform." The two most essential immediate considerations for us are these.

First, Pelosi is determined not to allow consideration of the critical Stupak-Pitts pro-life Amendment. Pro-lifers need to call their House representative to urge him or her to vote NO on the no-amendment procedure (which is called "the rule") on H.R. 3962. (See http://www.capwiz.com/nrlc/callalert/index.tt?alertid=14236481&type=CO for instructions how to do so most expeditiously.)

Second, there will be who knows how many bogus "compromises" floated, all supposedly to address pro-life concerns. None of them will be worth the paper they are written on.
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You know you are entering a kind of surrealistic universe when 80% of the vote in New Jersey has been counted, pro-life Republican Chris Christie is ahead by 100,000 votes over incumbent pro-abortion Democratic Governor Jon Corzine, and CNN is insisting the race is "too close to call." Corzine would have needed to have carried, say, 90% of the remaining vote to prevail, but hope sprang eternal last night at CNN.

Virginia Society for Human Life President Olivia Gans, with Virginia Governor-Elect Bob McDonnell

Meanwhile in Virginia, pro-life Republican Bob McDonnell had already trounced pro-abortion Democrat Creigh Deeds. Pro-life Republicans also won the other top two races–for Lt. Governor and Attorney General, and made gains in the state Assembly. Hats off to Virginia Society for Human Life PAC and the National Right to Life State Political Committee for outstanding contributions that helped make this clean sweep possible.

The best line describing last night may have been found in an editorial in this morning's Washington Times: "The results of the 2009 elections could be overread, but they cannot be ignored." Indeed. What can we say–besides the truism that it never matters to the Establishment Media when the pro-life candidate wins only when he/she loses?Well....pro-lifers won both in Virginia and New Jersey! This is no small accomplishment, nothing to be trivialized.

When pro-abortion Barack Obama carried Virginia last year, it was heralded as probably ushering in an era of permanent "liberal" (by which they meant pro-abortion) dominance. But Bob McDonnell ran the best campaign I've witnessed in the 28 years we have lived in Virginia–positive, sunny, and issue-oriented.

He never hid his pro-life credentials and never flinched when the Washington Post tried its best to torpedo his candidacy with stories about what he wrote umpteen years before as a graduate student. The Post had a huge investment. The paper had endorsed Creigh Deeds over his two better known rivals, persuaded that he was best suited to carry the Commonwealth.

Then, when he was floundering, the Post conveniently surfaced (and distorted) McDonnell's master's thesis. Deeds snapped his jaws around the story and held on like a bulldog. He ran an unrelentingly negative campaign which the electorate overwhelmingly rejected 59% to 41%.

Chris Christie was a very good pro-life candidate but running in a state that is die hard Democrat and against Corzine, who spent untold millions of his own money. (Christie was reportedly outspent 3-1!) Adding to the state's already deeply sullied reputation, the state Democratic Party ran "robocalls," telling voters to cast their ballots for the Independent candidate in an attempt to split the anti-Corzine vote.

Christie won anyway. Hats off to NRL PAC for its work on behalf of Christie.

Everybody has their own take on what the elections said, or did not say, about President Obama. But there are a couple of truths that no White House spin can change.

First, the chair of the Democratic Party is Virginia's pro-abortion Gov. Tim Kaine. You know that Kaine made sure that plenty of money, volunteers, and whatever else Deeds needed was made available. Obama visited the state.

None of this stopped McDonnell from securing over a million votes, in the process winning almost two-thirds of the voters who identified as Independents.

As the race neared conclusion, Obama practically took up residence in New Jersey. Corzine lost anyway. Clearly when Obama is not on the ticket he has no ability to move "his" voters to come out for fellow pro-abortion Democrats.

Second, we are just a little over ten months into the first year of Obama's presidency. If you are a Democrat, you'd have to have blinkers on not to be worried by last night's message, especially with a deeply controversial health care "reform" proposal about to be voted on.

Be sure to call your member of the House of Representative today. Again, the way to do that most expeditiously is by going to vote NO on the no-amendment procedure (which is called "the rule") on H.R. 3962. (See http://www.capwiz.com/nrlc/callalert/index.tt?alertid=14236481&type=CO for instructions how to do so most expeditiously.)

If you have thoughts to share, please send them to daveandrusko@gmail.com.

Part Two