Republican candidates confuse criticism with frontrunner status

Have you noticed how ever time some Republican gets attacked or criticized by the Dems, the R claims it's because he/she is the frontrunner?

Scott Walker and Mark Green do it all the time, each claiming he's the one Doyle is afraid to run against, therefore the attacks.

J.B. Van Hollen, Republican AG hopeful, is the latest to claim that being criticized is a badge of honor and makes him the frontrunner.

Actually, he drew some flak from the Dems because he stepped in it and said something dumb in a joint appearance with his primary opponent, Paul Bucher.

Asked at a WisPolitics debate whether “government should be involved in the personal decisions as to whether somebody should have an abortion,” Van Hollen said:

“You are not going to find me saying that I believe that that is something that should be the choice of an individual any more than I believe that homicide in any other circumstance should be the choice of a specific individual.”

When Van Hollen equated abortion with homicide, he painted a big target on himself and invited the Dems to fire away. Dem Chair Joe Wineke, always happy to oblige, did just that.

Among other things, Wineke said that "having a candidate for Attorney General refer to abortion as 'homicide' raises enormous red flags about both the priorities and philosophy such a viewpoint would bring to the office." Indeed it does.

Van Hollen's ">ridiculous response was to say that Wineke's release "confirms that he is the clear front runner in the GOP primary and Democrats are afraid their hold on the office of attorney general is in real jeopardy.

“I’m pro-life and proud of it. But I’ve been crystal clear that the attorney general’s job is to enforce the law and Roe v. Wade is the law of the land,” Van Hollen said.

Indeed it is, at least for the moment. But Van Hollen's fellow Republicans keep passing laws to restrict women's access to abortion and even to birth control and medical advice about preventing pregnancies. You can bet he'd be eager to enforce those invasions of women's rights and privacy as well.

I've had more negative things to say about Bucher than Van Hollen so far, mostly because Van Hollen has been pretty low profile. That's not because I think Bucher's the front-runner, though. I'm happy to shoot at any target that presents itself. If Van Hollen continues in this vein, you'll be reading a lot more about him on this blog, I suspect.