Puerto Rico: A GOP Death Wish
The Senate appears headed toward a non-binding vote on a pro-statehood resolution for Puerto Rico as early as Thursday (9/17) night. This would represent a major victory for those who would make the island the most left-wing state of the union.

Why would Senate Republicans want to do this, especially when they are so close to grabbing a filibuster-proof majority in their chamber? Anybody who thinks that Puerto Rico, whose people have roughly half the per capita income of those in Mississippi, would elect conservative Republicans is deluding himself. Then there's the added challenge of admitting a state whose people don't even speak English.

The pro-statehood lobby doesn't even want the message it's conveying to the Puerto Rican people to be heard in the United States. Airing in Spanish, a current pro-statehood TV ad says: "With statehood, we will not become blue-eyed blondes. ... Nor will we change our language and culture. With statehood, we will remain as we are. We will remain as we are. We will remain as we are. Speaking Spanish. Eating fritters." Then text appears on the screen, "Statehood: Your language, your culture, your future."

When an opponent of statehood tried to play this ad following a pro-statehood press conference on Wednesday, he was physically prevented from using the video machine. The campaign for Puerto Rican statehood is based on propaganda, deceit, and lobbying money. Senate Republicans should have the common sense to vote it down.

What D.C. Won't See
Three television stations in Washington are refusing to air Gary Bauer's ads calling on President Clinton to resign. WJLA, the ABC affiliate, hasn't given any explanation; nor has WRC (NBC). Here's the CBS affiliate's explanation: "WUSA-TV feels that we are covering the issue surrounding the president sufficiently in our news (we air 8 hours of local news each day), and that accepting money from an outside organization such as American Renewal would not serve to benefit our viewers." Oh. So if the station covers a local political campaign, it won't run the candidates' ads?

Straw Men
The Christian Coalition, whose annual "Road to Victory" conference takes place in D.C. this weekend, has canceled its presidential straw poll. The straw poll has been controversial within the organization, which has not held them before; some top staffers thought its results would overshadow the rest of the conference and tie their hands in the presidential race. The cover story for the cancellation is that given the president's troubles, this would be an inappropriate time to begin the horse race for 2000. Please.

Word is that the real reason was Pat Robertson's fear that his favorite, Sen. John Ashcroft (R., Mo.), would not win, or not win convincingly enough. Steve Forbes and Gary Bauer were making major efforts to win, and Dan Quayle might have made a strong showing. For religious conservatives to support several candidates might not be bad for the movement (see Ramesh Ponnuru, "Fall from Grace," NR, May 18), but a lot of its leaders believe this strategy failed in 1996, allowing a moderate to win the nomination.

These leaders might not have much say in the matter, though. It looks like several candidates will have support from religious conservatives. And it looks like John Ashcroft had better start beefing up his field organization.