I suspect the re-make will have the same ending as the original

It seems that this summer every movie that comes out this year is a re-make of an old television show. Well, here in Iowa, we're taking that a step further: we're re-cycling our campaigns.

I left the Democratic Party in 1990 when, shortly after I moved to Iowa, the only Democratic candidate for governor with a chance to win- then (and now) Attorney General Tom Miller- lost the primary to a far weaker and less popular candidate simply because Miller was pro-life. I realized then that there is simply no room in the Democratic Party for people who believe that Roe v. Wade is itself an outrage against the Constitution, and not in any sense the protection a genuine constitutional right.

We in Iowa are about to end eight long years with a Democrat, Tom Vilsack, in Terrace Hill (the governor's mansion). In U.S. Rep. Jim Nussle, I believe that we Republicans have a strong candidate to take Terrace Hill back next year.

Interestingly, one of Nussle's potential opponents, former state senator Mike Blouin, is a pro-life Democrat.

But not, it seems, one particularly willing to risk Miller's fate if he can avoid it. This from an interview with David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register (aka "Iowa's Best Red Newspaper"):

Blouin also said if he is elected, he won't sign laws that violate the U.S. Constitution, nor will he try to pass anti-abortion laws just to push the issue and create court tests.

"I want to be creating the kind of society where people have a fighting chance to make it, in terms of economic opportunity, quality of life, health care - all of that is part of creating the kind of community where life is special. I know as governor I would take an oath of office to uphold the laws of Iowa and I will. I have an obligation not to sign anything into law that violates the Constitution and I won't," he said.

"If it's contradictory to Roe V. Wade, I think I've got an obligation to uphold the Constitution" and veto it. He added: "If I can leave a mark, I'd like to create an environment where the need for abortion gradually disappears. Then you've accomplished the same thing" as enacting a legal ban on the practice.

No, you haven't- and no, you haven't! Roe isn't the Constitution. It is, in fact, a distortion of the Constitution. And the legality of abortion would remain just as great a moral blot on our society even if not a single abortion were ever performed. Or would it be OK to make it legal even in principle to kill, say, African-Americans, just as long as nobody did it much?

And who is Blouin kidding? Does Blouin seriously believe that we will ever get to the point where personal convenience will disappear as a motivation to avail oneself of a legal option to abort?

Brother Blouin's reasoning seems deficient, or his values a bit elastic when it comes to the place where abortion and his career intersect. Were I his parish priest, I might offer the advice that sometimes that which is good for our careers may not be nearly as good for our souls.

The article ends with a comment by Blouin, followed by a summation by Yepsen, both of which I find to be right on the mark:

Asked what pro-choice Democrats should do in the primary, Blouin asked them to look at electability and the bigger picture of issues. "We used to have a big tent in the Democratic Party. The election of 2004 taught Democrats something about needing to put parts of the tent back up. I don't believe people left the Democratic Party over the years, I believe they were kind of pushed out. It's been a mistake and we need to bring them back."

While Blouin faces a serious challenge in explaining his position on abortion, Iowa Democrats face a challenge on the issue as well. They sometimes like to accuse Republicans of being single-issue voters on abortion.

In 2006, the question will be whether Iowa Democrats are themselves being single-issue about this.

My hunch is that, temporize as he might, a pro-life Democrat will have no more luck with one of the nation's most crazy-Left state parties in 2006 than Tom Miller did in 1990.