Conservatives are asking, coast to coast, what will President Bush do? The question goes beyond the demands of diplomacy. Yes, they wonder how he will square off to sullen Democrats, to skeptical bureaucrats, to journalists mad with anxiety to catalyze an ignorant remark, a solecism Jay Leno can use, since he's beginning to run out. They wonder what concrete evidence there'll be that we have a Republican president, a Republican House and (on days Dick Cheney is there to break the tie) a Republican Senate.
There are two measures, in the opinion of this observer, that readily qualify for immediate attention. One is the death of the death tax -- a sign of life! The second is the passage of the ban on partial-birth abortions.
As between the two, the abortion bill edges out the other for reasons that would seem apparent. Contrary to public misunderstanding, the number of partial-birth abortions is not high. Some have wondered why so much thunder and fire have been expended in opposition to the ban, given their infrequency and the mothers' demonstrated freedom to guard their health without them.
The enormous battle twice waged by President Clinton to continue to authorize partial-birth abortions rests on his alleged belief that to abolish them would emasculate the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision authorizing abortions in general. Doctors and scientists have written and testified that a mother's health is never put in jeopardy for failure to extend to her the facilities of the baby guillotine -- but the other side won.
Now the vote in favor of ending partial-birth deaths was not a narrowly Republican measure. The last time around, the vote in the Senate was 63-34; in the House, 287-141. Overwhelming majorities, but insufficient to crash through a presidential veto, and indeed the veto was forthcoming. The vote by the new Congress would of course be different, but it is inconceivable that it would fail to generate a bill which President Bush could then sign.
Those who have a fancy for that kind of thing are invited to speculate: How many individuals would be helped by one relief, compared to the other? In the 30 days after death taxes were repealed, how many Americans subject to death penalties will die? In the month after the end of partial birth, how many Americans would emerge safe from their mothers' womb?