When Concern Trolls Attack

As the Palin meltdown continues, increasingly-desperate wingnuts have latched onto yet another 'former Democrat', one Suann Therese Maier, who explains (more in sorrow than anger, of course) why she's voting for Sarah Palin.

Maier's piece isn't terribly coherent or rational; for her, it appears to come down to motherhood. As in, Democrats don't respect it, and McCain does (because he picked Palin). Yes, it's another one of those 'my whole politics changed because I perceived some comment at a cocktail party as belittling my life choices' essays. (Which, of course, is exactly the Palin narrative the McCain campaign is desperately flogging.)

Anyway, buried in the middle of Maier's mawkish rambling, we see that maybe she has something of an, um, agenda: More...

And I remember the night in 1992 when Pennsylvania’s governor, Robert Casey, was denied a chance to talk against abortion at the Democratic national convention....I will vote against the Democratic party—partly because I respect John McCain and believe him to be the better candidate, but equally because I’m tired of the intransigence and condescension of the Democratic leadership on the abortion issue....How can a real sympathy for motherhood come from the same people who wrote a platform that hardens the party’s addiction to a phony right to kill the unborn?

One and a half Googles later, I find that her other primary claim to minor fame is receiving an award from the Archbishop of Denver. The announcement provides this mini-profile:

A teacher for 24 years, 20 in Catholic schools, Suann has been active in Catholic and public service volunteer causes for decades as a catechist, coach, board president of a school for children with special needs and a pro-life activist, the archbishop indicated. She has served as an emergency pregnancy counselor, raised the funds for and helped found pro-life clinics, recruited pro-life volunteers, and served in a variety of pro-life leadership positions, including president of the Right to Life League of Southern California, one of the largest pro-life education and service provider networks in the nation....

Suann Maier recalled that she was dismissing her fourth-graders from a parish school in Manhattan when a parent told her abortion on demand had been made legal. Pregnant with her first child at the time, she said she immediately understood that “abortion was going to be one of the gravest evils of our time...

And Archbishop Chaput, the guy who gave her the award? He's the one who campaigned against Kerry in 2004. Yeah, we'd have had her vote if we were less 'intransigent' and 'condescending'--I'm just sure.

By the way, I did see her name come up in one other place: in the acknowledgments to Melinda Henneberger's book. Yes, that Melinda Henneberger--who, coincidentally, was thrilled about the Palin pick.

Anti-abortion concern trolls have to stick together.