Would Abortions Be Okay?

US Senator Tom Coburn original day job was obstetrician, and he still practices (For all you liberals, that means he is a doctor who delivers babies).

It's against Senate rules to have a job on the side, even if you do it for no financial gain as Coburn does. Republicans are trying to change those rules, but Democrats, most notably Barbara Boxer opposed the change.

The most curious "no" vote came from Barbara Boxer of California. Like several senators. she has not found her duties a barrier to outside activities. She is the proud author of a new political novel called "A Time to Run." It tells the story of someone who easily could be Ms. Boxer herself. The heroine is a liberal Democratic senator from California named Ellen Fischer who bravely challenges the nomination of a Supreme Court nominee who she fears would oppose Roe v. Wade. The novel tells us that the Boxer-alter ego entered politics out of the best of motives--"knowing she'd spend the rest of her life (in public service)--that she'd been put here on earth to save its endangered children."
The reviews have not been kind. W.C. Varones, a frequent reviewer for Amazon, flatly declared: "This isn't Barbara Boxer's book. It was written by (collaborator) Mary-Rose Hayes, whose prior works are a string of cheesy romance novels that went straight to out-of-print." When it comes to sex scenes the novel's prose may not be lifeless, but it is overripe: "Greg's naked body was long and elegant, his embrace enveloped her utterly, and they meshed with ease and grace. He smelled good too, faintly and astringently of aftershave. He was clinging to her as if he'd never let her go, it was all so easy and right."

This is not to single out Ms. Boxer for ridicule. Other senators have tried their hand at creative endeavors, from Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) and his Christian song lyrics to Barbara Mikulski (D., Md.) and her own political potboilers. Senate rules expressly allow members to be compensated for "works of fiction . . . where the payment is not offered because of the author's Senate status." But does anyone really believe that publishers would be lining up to publish dreck such as Ms. Boxer's were it not for her "Senate status"?