It's my party too, part 2

Ralph has an excellent post on the former EPA secretary Christine Todd Whitman's new organization, It's my party too.

Take the time to read through the first page and you get a real sense of what they are about.

First, we have to decide on the issues that are of the most importance, fiscal restraint, reasonable and open discussion of social issues, environmental policies that promote a balanced approach to environmental protection, and a foreign policy that is engaged with the rest of the world.

Next, we must begin to organize at the local level, involving like-minded moderates in the state and local party structures to ensure that the candidates the party nominates do not represent just the far fringes of the party, but instead come from the heart of the party's moderate middle.

I should be the poster child for this group.

I am a Christian conservative, pro-life who strongly supports the war on terror around the world, including Iraq. However when you dig a little deeper, you will not find religious extremist war monger.

I am Christian. That does not mean that I want to teach the bible in public schools. Although I would like to have a copy of the Ten Commandments in the hallway or in the classroom right next to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. The Ten Commandments are chiseled in the stone inside the Supreme Court of the United States, I've seen them.

I am also pro-life. This does not mean that I stand in front of abortion clinics and scream murderer at the doctors who perform them. I would always support those who want to counsel women and young girls about the options available to them and to inform them of the risks.

I am blessed to have two wonderful children, my daughter was born two months premature was in neonatal intensive care for 9 weeks. My wife was within a few minutes of dying in the operating room. When we spoke to the doctors we were advised that if she were to become pregnant again, she would be at extreme risk of dying along with the baby. We have taken the appropriate steps to assure she will not have another pregnancy, but if by a one in million chance she became pregnant, I would want to have the option of an abortion to save her life. It would be a decision that would stay with us for the rest of our lives, but I could not watch her die and leave our children without a mother.

I want to have my children grow up in a world where freedom, both economic and social, are practiced across the globe. This cannot be accomplished when there are groups of Islamic fanatics who want to replace freedom with Sharia law and plunge us back into the 14th century. Take a good look at Afghanistan in 2001. That is not the world I want my children to grow up in.

To make sure our children live in freedom, we must destroy those who want to kill us. My son may have to fight in this war, I hope he does not. I want every American son, daughter, brother, sister, father and mother to be home safe and sound, but that is not the world we live in. I pray for those soldiers defending freedom around the world. Yes, war is terrible, but like I've said before the only thing worse that war, is loosing a war. And folks, we are at war.

So I guess my question to 'moderates' like Christine is, who has the courage to face the problems of today's world? Iraq, Iran, North Korea, China, these problems are not going away. No amount of diplomacy is going to keep a nut job like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from developing a nuclear warhead to go on top of the missiles he bought from North Korea.

Christine, what will you do when he announces that Iran has just launched a nuke bound for Tel Aviv and if we intervene, he has a cargo ship off the coast of America with a nuclear device that will set off a EMP burst that will take the entire US power grid off line and knock out all communications? What will you, Lincoln Chafee, Olympia Snow and Mike Dewine do? Send him a strongly worded statement?

Not good enough Christine, not by a long shot. We live in a serious world, with bad people in it who want us dead. We cannot take a chance on moderation in a life and death situation.