For decades, conservative used the term “bleeding heart liberal” as a pejorative for their political adversaries. In the hunt for the Republican nomination for president in 2008, Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) is running on a “bleeding heart conservative” platform while campaigning in Iowa.
From today’s New York Times:
He has also been honing his pitch as a “bleeding heart conservative.”
The phrase is his way of explaining his strong stances against abortion, same-sex marriage and government spending, which have made him popular among conservative activists, as well as some of his less ideologically orthodox stances.
Those include his advocacy on behalf of refugees in Sudan and North Korea, which led him to reach across the aisle to work with Senator Edward M. Kennedy; his legislation on sex trafficking, which paired him with Senator Paul Wellstone, a liberal Minnesota Democrat who died in 2002; and his focus on improving the prison system, which helps explain the night he spent in Angola State Prison in Louisiana soon after he announced his exploratory committee.
4 Responses to “Brownback: Bleeding Heart Conservative”
[...] Brownback: Bleeding Heart Conservative [...]
Something to say?
I thought the New York Times article was pretty hostile to Sam Brownback. You may be interested in my analysis.
Time’s blog did an interview with Brownback which was much more fair and illuminating.
I did a post on both of these over at Blogs4Brownback. Maybe you’ll check us out!
Left by Psycheout
March 12, 2007 at 6:16pm