On the issue of abortion, Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark has taken the most extreme position possible, declaring he supports the legality of the procedure up until the moment of birth.
Saying "life begins with the mother's decision," the retired general told the Manchester Union Leader he would never, as president, appoint a pro-life judge.
"I don't believe people whose ideological agenda is to burn the law or remake the law or reshape it should be appointed whether they are from either side," he told the paper. Clark claims he would not use a litmus test to determine a potential appointee's position on abortion, but would read the judge's previous decisions.
"I'm not going to be appointing judges who are pro-life," he said, according to the report. "I just want good, solid people with judicial temperament who respect the process of law that we have in America." Clark further explained to the Union Leader how he would pick judges: "You just work through what the judge has done and if you find guys who follow judicial and established precedent, you're not going to find a judge who is pro-life. It's a hypothetical that is very unlikely to happen because" a judge who follows precedent "is not going to be the kind of person who is going to use his ideology.
He's not going to have an ideology to advance at the expense of the law." The candidate refused to talk about when life begins, saying, "I'm in favor of choice, period. Pure and simple. "I don't think you should get the law involved in abortion. It's between a woman, her doctor, her faith and her family and her conscience. You don't put the law in there."
Yes, this is an extreme position. I think the following statement is also really stupid:
QUOTE |
Clark claims he would not use a litmus test to determine a potential appointee's position on abortion . . . "I'm not going to be appointing judges who are pro-life," |
International Level: International Guru / Political Participation: 854 85.4%