Democrats ride Romney's Planned Parenthood remark

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A coordinated attack by Democrats on Mitt Romney's plan to "get rid of" Planned Parenthood to help balance the federal budget is part of a larger campaign to ensure that Romney and other Republicans lose credibility with female voters.

The Romney campaign contends that the remark has been taken out of context. Yet even the debate over what Romney meant or didn't mean underscores the political peril he faces as the GOP nomination fight rages on.

Facing continued conservative skepticism, Romney has been pushed further to the right to appeal to his party's right flank. In doing so, he risks alienating key constituencies ? women and independents, among them ? while drawing unwanted attention to his inconsistent positions on social issues.

The Planned Parenthood controversy stems from a recent interview with a Missouri television station in which Romney addressed his plans to cut the federal deficit.

"Is the program so critical that it is worth borrowing money from China to pay for it?" Romney asked. "And on that basis, of course you get rid of ObamaCare, that's the easy one. But there are others: Planned Parenthood, we're going to get rid of that. The subsidy for Amtrak, I would eliminate that. The National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, both excellent programs, but we can't afford to borrow money to pay for these things."

Asked to clarify the Planned Parenthood reference hours after the report aired, top Romney campaign adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said Romney did not mean to suggest his administration would eliminate the women's health care provider altogether. Indeed, in remarks before and after the Missouri interview, Romney indicated he would focus on eliminating the organization's federal funding, as Republicans in Washington and in state legislatures across the country have fought to do in recent months.

"It would not be getting rid of the organization," Fehrnstrom said. "They have other sources of funding besides government appropriations, but in order to achieve balance, we have to make some tough decisions about spending."

Romney has personally avoided the issue since Fehrnstrom's comments Monday night, but his campaign released a statement suggesting it was morally irresponsible "to borrow money from China to fund our nation's leading abortion provider."

"The real question should be why President Obama thinks that is the right course for our nation," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said.

Democrats, meanwhile, have intensified their push to exploit Romney's remark. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi described it as an "an assault on the judgment of women." Democratic congresswomen and party officials from across the nation issued similar statements and hosted conference calls with reporters, and the Democratic National Committee released a new video seizing on the comment.

Democrats hope to keep the controversy going as long as they can. They seemed to score political points in recent weeks as the Republican presidential contest was consumed by President Barack Obama's decision to compel insurance companies to cover contraception, even for employees of religious institutions who oppose the practice. Republicans, Romney among them, criticized the president's decision, framing the issue as one of religious freedom, while Democrats charged it was about fundamental access to birth control.

The focus from the economy to social issues concerned some Republicans in Washington and on the campaign trail alike. In recent days, it appeared that the party was beginning to move on.

The Planned Parenthood debate offers new challenges for Romney, who has struggled to convince his party's most passionate voters that he's an authentic conservative.

As a gubernatorial candidate in 2002, Romney signed a Planned Parenthood questionnaire that documents broad support for the organization he now says he would like to strip of federal funding.

He said, for example, that he supported using state tax dollars to fund abortion services through Medicaid for low-income women, according to a copy of the signed questionnaire. He also pledged support for increased access to emergency contraception such as the "morning after pill," which he now condemns as an "abortive pill."

Romney concedes that he shifted from being pro-choice to anti-abortion after becoming governor. But he insists he has been consistent on all other social issues.

Saul offered this comment when asked about the Planned Parenthood questionnaire: "Mitt Romney is firmly pro-life and he explained his reasons for becoming pro-life many years ago."

It's unclear if that answer will satisfy his critics ? Republicans or Democrats.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/democrats-ride-romneys-planned-parenthood-remark-062744294.html

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Syria marks anniversary of uprising, violence grows

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria marks the first anniversary on Thursday of an increasingly bloody uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, with recent army gains unlikely to quell the revolt and no diplomatic solution in sight.

Troops loyal to Assad have pummeled rebel strongholds across Syria this week, deploying tanks and heavy artillery to crush opponents in a string of cities and villages, including Deraa in the far south where the rebellion took hold last March.

Amid dire warnings that Syria is set to sink into a protracted civil war, the U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has demanded further clarifications from Damascus over its response to proposals aimed at ending the violence.

He is due to report back to a divided U.N. Security Council on Friday, with Russia and China still standing behind a defiant Assad while exasperated Western powers push for regime change.

The United Nations estimates that more than 8,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting, while some 230,000 Syrians have been displaced from their homes, including 30,000 who have fled abroad, raising the prospect of a refugee crisis.

Britain's Guardian newspaper on Wednesday published what it said it thought were genuine emails sent and received by Assad and his wife between June and February that lifted the lid on aspects of their personal life.

The emails also appeared to show that Assad had taken advice from Iran on countering the uprising, that he had joked about his promises of reform, and that his wife had placed orders for expensive overseas goods as the violence escalated.

Assad's supporters have blamed foreign powers and terrorists for the chaos and say 2,000 soldiers have died in the conflict.

Opposition activists said up to 130 tanks and armored vehicles converged on Deraa on Wednesday, raking buildings with machinegun fire and carrying out house-to-house raids.

"They are hitting the birthplace of our revolution," said a resident from the city, who only identified himself as Mohammed for fear of reprisals.

Reports of army assaults also emerged from the northern province of Idlib and in the coastal region near al-Haffa.

Official Syrian media accused "armed terrorists" of massacring 15 civilians, including young children, in a pro-government district of the central city of Homs, which has been the focal point of much fighting in recent weeks.

Reports from Syria cannot be independently verified as the authorities deny access to rights groups and journalists.

TORTURE

The Syrian president confidently predicted at the start of 2011 that his country was immune from the so-called "Arab Spring", which has seen the old, autocratic leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen swept from power.

But on March 15, a few dozen protesters braved the streets of Damascus to call for more freedom. Days later riots broke out in Deraa, on the border with Jordan, to protest against the torture of local boys caught writing anti-government graffiti.

Over the past 12 months the unrest has morphed from a largely peaceful pro-democracy movement into a full-scale rebellion, led by a disparate collection of lightly armed militants and army deserters grouped in the Free Syrian Army.

They have briefly succeeded in wresting control of various towns and villages from the authorities but invariably ceded their gains in the face of a much stronger government force.

Despite a crashing economy, tightening sanctions and growing international isolation, Assad still seems to have significant support within Syria, notably in its two top cities -- Damascus and Aleppo. Its main ally Iran also remains fiercely supportive.

ASSAD FAMILY MAINTAINS GRIP

There is no sign of the Assad family and their allies losing control, or of significant defections from the army.

While Western powers and much of the Arab world have slammed the bloody crackdown, Syria has been able to count on the support of both Russia and China, which have vetoed two U.N. resolutions that were critical of Damascus.

However, diplomats say the conflict is developing along sectarian divisions, with the Sunni Muslim majority, who make up some 75 percent of the population of 23 million, at odds with Assad's Alawite sect, which represents just 10 percent but controls many of the levers of power.

Other minorities, such as the Christians, are sticking with Assad for fear of reprisals should he be ousted, analysts say.

"The strategy of the regime is civil war, after it failed to silence the people. So it's trying to protect its future by moving toward dividing the country," said Najati Tayyara, a veteran dissident and Sunni liberal who has fled to Jordan.

Damascus says it as responded to calls for change and points o a new constitution approved in a referendum last month which removed a clause granting Assad's ruling Baath Party a monopoly of power. A parliamentary election is set for May 7.

Former U.N. chief Annan presented Assad with a five-point plan to end the fighting at weekend talks.

Syria has said it has given a "positive" response to the approach. However, a senior Western diplomat in the region told Reuters that Damascus had effectively rejected Annan's ideas.

Beleaguered residents in areas facing army crackdowns have accused the outside world of abandoning them to their fate.

"We think that foreign powers are giving another period of grace to Assad that is allowing him to exterminate his people and their revolt," said Mohammed, speaking from in Deraa.

(Additional reporting by Erika Solomon and Oliver Holmes in Beirut and Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-marks-anniversary-uprising-violence-grows-040120548.html

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