Senators Bob Smith, John McCain
Take Steps To Run for President

WASHINGTON (Jan. 4) - - Two U.S. senators have taken the first formal steps towards seeking the Republican nomination for president in the year 2000.

On December 30, Senator John McCain (R-Az.) filed papers with the Federal Election Commission establishing an "exploratory committee," a step often taken by candidates before they formally declare their candidacies.

McCain has been a member of Congress since 1983. He served in the House from 1983-86 and in the Senate since 1987.

McCain has usually voted in opposition to abortion. However, he has voted repeatedly for federal funding of research involving transplantation of tissues or organs "harvested" from aborted babies, a policy opposed by NRLC.

In addition, in 1995, Senator McCain voted for an unsuccessful proposal (referred to by NRLC and other opponents as the "teen mother's child exclusion") intended to discourage any state from using federal welfare funds to provide cash assistance for the care of babies born to unwed teen mothers.

In research on McCain's 16-year tenure in Congress, NRLC has found no record of any pro-life McCain amendment to any bill, nor of McCain stepping forward as an initiator or leader on any pro-life issue. Nevertheless, in a 1998 letter to the nation's Roman Catholic bishops, McCain asserted, "I . . . yield to no member of Congress . . . in my support of legislation to protect the rights of the unborn." [McCain's letter, and a response from NRLC, are available at www.nrlc.org/mccainbishop.html.]

In recent years, McCain has come into sharp conflict with NRLC and some other pro-life and pro-family groups because of his attempts to restrict free speech about members of Congress and other congressional candidates.

McCain is the prime sponsor of the McCain-Feingold "campaign reform" legislation, which would severely restrict the right of citizen groups (such as NRLC and NRLC affiliates) to educate the public regarding the positions and voting records of members of Congress and other congressional candidates. The bill repeatedly has been blocked by filibusters led by pro-life Senators Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Trent Lott (R-Ms.).

McCain's advocacy of such speech-restrictive legislation has won him many admirers within the institutional news media. And although he calls himself a "conservative," he is not seen by some in the institutional media as a true ally of pro-life groups and pro-family groups.

For example, on December 26 the Wall Street Journal's archliberal Washington bureau chief, Al Hunt, commented regarding McCain's likely candidacy, "I think there is a real yearning among even many Republicans for someone who will stand up to the self-righteous and frequently hypocritical moral Right. John McCain is the man to do it."

McCain has worked closely with liberal advocacy groups such as Common Cause and the League of Women Voters in drafting and promoting "campaign reform" legislation. At the same time, McCain and his staff have attacked advocacy groups that oppose his legislation, such as NRLC, as self-serving "special interests."

NRLC Executive Director David N. O'Steen, Ph.D., commented, "NRLC will not be intimidated. We will continue to oppose Sen. McCain's efforts to restrict our ability to speak to the American people and to elected officials on behalf of our members. If free speech about members of Congress and congressional candidates had been restricted over the past 25 years in the ways now proposed by McCain, the pro-life movement could never have become the effective force that it is today."

The "John McCain for President Exploratory Committee" is co-chaired by former Sen. Warren Rudman (R-NH), who heads up McCain's network in the crucial primary state of New Hampshire. Rudman, a longtime defender of Roe v. Wade, orchestrated the appointment of former New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice David Souter to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1990. Souter subsequently played a key role in crafting Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 Supreme Court ruling that reaffirmed Roe v. Wade.

Rudman told the Arizona Republic that McCain will make a formal announcement of whether he will run by between mid-January and mid-February.

Smith Officially Declares CandidacyOn January 4, Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire filed papers with the Federal Election Commission officially declaring his candidacy for president. Smith's voting record has been solidly pro-life during his six years in the U.S. House (1985-90) and eight years in the Senate (1991-present).

He was the original chief Senate sponsor of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in 1995, and has played a key role on other pro-life issues as well. During the 1997-98 Congress, he was the prime author of two legislative proposals to restore sweeping protections for unborn children, one a constitutional amendment and the other a statute.

"The most pressing issue of our generation is abortion, because it goes to the most fundamental right - - the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," Smith said in 1998. "Without life, we cannot have liberty or pursue happiness. Yet we have denied all of these rights to 35 million of the most vulnerable members of the human family since Roe v. Wade. This tragic Supreme Court decision must be overturned."