NARAL Folds, Aborts False Ad

Under pressure from fair-minded people on both sides of the aisle, NARAL has aborted its false and misleading ad against John Roberts:

After a week of protests by conservatives, an abortion-rights group said Thursday night it is withdrawing a television advertisement linking Supreme Court nominee John Roberts to violent anti-abortion activists.

"We regret that many people have misconstrued our recent advertisement about Mr. Roberts' record," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America
"Unfortunately, the debate over that advertisement has become a distraction from the serious discussion we hoped to have with the American public," she said in a letter Thursday to Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who had urged the group to withdraw the ad.

Specter, himself an abortion-rights supporter as well as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that will question Roberts next month, earlier Thursday had called the ad "blatantly untrue and unfair."

In the old days they might have gotten away with this, but today it's just too easy to debunk this kind of nonsense and spread the word to millions. This one blew right up in their faces.

They had hoped to scare off the Bush Administration, especially when it came to future nominees who might be even more conservative. Instead, it will be NARAL taking the lumps, and their next ad better be clean as a whistle or they'll get decimated again.