Equal Pay, Not Abortion

Barack Obama is doing what he can to remedy his history of abortion-rights extremism. Given the overtones of zealotry in his opposition to the Illinois version of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act (and his wife's outspoken opposition to the outlawing of partial birth abortion), it's understandable that he wants to stay away from life issues altogether.

But he needs a way to appeal to Hillary's voters, and as today's "Politico" points out, he's turning to the "wedge issue" of supposed unequal pay between men and women.

Specifically, he's attacking John McCain for having failed to vote for a regrettable piece of legislation deceptively titled the "Fair Pay Restoration Act."

As I noted at the time, the legislation at issue was actually little more than a sop to the plaintiffs' bar. And just for the recordm as I noted at the time:

Pay discrimination is already addressed by the 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act. Wage discrimination based on sex is likewise prohibited by the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Obviously, Senator McCain opposed none of them . . . because he was a naval aviator at the time of the latter two's passage, and when the 1972 bill became law -- well, suffice it to say that he was "tied up at the time" in the Hanoi Hilton.

Suggesting that opponents of this bill are opposing equal pay is like insisting that the Equal Rights Amendment is necessary to redress pregnancy discrimination, despite the existence of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act; the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978; and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993. It's just not so. Everyone knows that the ERA had an agenda far beyond protecting pregnant women; this bill has an agenda that far exceeds redressing gender-based wage discrimination.