Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

CBN News' David Brody says he's got "exclusive" video of Fred Thompson's pre-taped remarks that will be shown at the National Right to Life conference tonight in Kansas City, and you can view it here at his blog, "The Brody File." Well, it's not exclusive - someone else has it on YouTube - but Brody does offer a transcript, too, and notes which Republican candidates are talking to the pro-life conference and which aren't.

Brody:

Mitt Romney addresses the group Friday. We plan to search out video of his remarks. If we can’t get video, we’ll post his comments. As for John McCain, he is not speaking at the event. I called the McCain campaign about this. Spokesman Danny Diaz tells The Brody File: “Unfortunately, Senator McCain’s schedule will not allow him to attend but certainly this is an issue that is important to him and one that he communicates with voters as he travels the country.” The Brody File has been told that Sam Brownback and Ron Paul will speak too. Mike Huckabee was invited to the event but he had a scheduling conflict because he's out raising money in Texas. As for Rudy Giuliani, umm…well…umm…enough said

The Thompson video also gives viewers a rare look at Thompson's young children. Brody calls the video Thompson's "first official 'salvo" into the pro-life arena as a presidential candidate."

I think it's a particularly effective one as it cuts through all the spin about what Thompson may have said, meant or thought more than a decade ago when he was running for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee and positions him - through actions not words - as a friend of the pro-life base of the Republican party.

Thompson reminds viewers of his 100 percent pro-life voting record as a U.S. Senator, and his opposition to partial-birth abortion and to stem cell research involving stem cells harvested from killed embryos. He also makes a nice pivot from those distinctly pro-life issues to related issues that affect children after they're born:

Says Thompson:

I’m concerned about the cultural environment that they’re going to grow up in. I’m concerned about the fact that we’re bankrupting our entitlement program that’s going to saddle them with unbelievably high taxes when they’re going to try to start their families and buy that first home. I’m concerned most of all about their safety. We have an enemy in this World that would like nothing more than to kill thousands more innocent Americans; men, women, and children. I know you share those concerns, and I look forward to working together with you on them.

Addressing those issues before a crowd of pro-lifers isn't an attempt to divert the discussion from the core pro-life issues of abortion and stem-cell research. Rather, it is a recognition that the Christian conservatives that make up most of the pro-life base of the Republican Party are also deeply concerned about cultural rot, about their children's financial future, and about the need for the government to continue to fight Islamofacist terror.

Thompson's focus on those as "pro-life" issues also can be seen as a shot across the bow of the eventual Democratic presidential nominee, as several of the Democratic candidates are fond of trying to cloak their pro-abortion positions and records by talking about being "pro-life" for those children who are born.