Carly Fiorina truly is panicked. The NRSC has been spooked by the Scozzafava/Hoffman/Owens race, and is more or less going to leave Fiorina out to dry. And while she got the support of conservative favorite Tom Coburn to match Chuck DeVore’s Jim DeMint, the rest of her supporters paint a different picture. Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Olympia Snowe, Lisa Murkowski: to many of us, these are what is wrong with the Republican Senate caucus.
So now she’s launched prematurely, shot the wad of endorsements she has in the middle of a week, rushed to pander to the right by appearing in the OC Register, but even that’s not enough. Now she’s making outrageous attacks on Chuck DeVore and the rest of us who favor an Internet free of burdensome government regulation.
I’ve been given a transcript of part of her appearance with Ed Morrissey, in relation to the video out where she endorses big government on the Internet, as follows:
Well, thanks for giving me the opportunity. First, one of the unfortunate habits of my primary opponent is he tends to cut and splice things I say and mischaracterize my positions and my record. I am against further regulation or taxation of the internet. And if you listen to the entire conversation, what you would find is what I was talking about very explicitly, was the reality that the Internet is used today for the exploitation of women and children. It is used as a tool to facilitate human trafficking in sex slaves, and it is used as a tool to facilitate child pornography. And we must land hard on those criminal activities that are going on on the Internet, particularly when they impact children. So for anyone to try and defend criminal activities, particularly those kind of criminal activities, on the Internet, I just find, frankly, unconscionable.
This attack is, first of all, ironic: I doubt she could demonstrate a voting record of DeVore’s that actually favors child rapists. Did she even try? But at the same time, her supporters have attacked DeVore as “lacking integrity” because he questions her own pro-life credentials. But DeVore’s voting record is much more clear than Fiorina’s own record on life.
Does she really want to get into this battle? The DeVore camp tells me they’re already compiling the information on the Assemblyman’s record against child rapists, and I’m sure we’ll be hearing about it soon enough. He’s going to refute this desperate, flailing attack with a conclusive response.
But we will still be left with no definitive answer from Carly Fiorina on basic life questions: Does she favor legalized abortion on demand? Does she favor government-funded embryonic stem-cell research? Does she think Roe v. Wade or Planned Parenthood v. Casey were correctly decided? Does she favor the Hyde amendment? Would she support or reject Obamacare with abortion subsidies? Would she have voted to confirm or reject Justice Sotomayor? Would she vote to confirm any justice not a strict constructionist?
If someone has a definitive transcript, essay, or video with Fiorina answering these basic, vital questions, I would love to see it. I’ve looked and not found anything. I welcome emails from Fiorina supporters or staffers, and I pledge that if I receive such evidence in email, I will post about it fairly at RedState. I earnestly would love to be shown that both our Senate candidates are strong on life, but until now only one candidate’s been willing to show me anything.
I’m waiting.