Word: litmus
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Christian activists comfortably inside. Several months ago, Bush said Roe v. Wade will not be overturned until hearts are changed and so we should focus on ways to reduce abortion. Last Monday he retreated further from the strict pro-life agenda, saying he would not insist on a "litmus test" for court nominees...
...cruise straight past the primaries and into the general election as "a uniter, not a divider," with none of the debts and scars and promises that slow candidates down just at the point when the campaign becomes a sprint. The Republican faithful would forgo their normal feedings of litmus tests and put up with this soggy message of "compassionate conservatism" because Bush has a message for them too. Three words: I can win. Now he just has to prove it will work...
...long-shot candidate like Gary Bauer, former head of the Family Research Council, could keep the personal morality issue in play in the primaries. But Jeff Bell, an adviser to Bauer, says he would hesitate to see adultery become a litmus test for candidates. Among conservative Christians, a blemished past "is not a deal breaker," says Bell. What's important is how the candidate handles his own and others' transgressions. "One thing about Evangelicals," says a close adviser to George W. Bush, "they believe that without sin, redemption is not possible. And for them the issue is redemption...
...billions of tax dollars for post offices and bridges in their own districts, will shy away from influencing the direction of this huge investment windfall? And even if they are not so crass as to pick a shipbuilding company in their district, they will be issuing every conceivable ideological litmus test for these investments...
...There are a range of litmus test issues," said Fallon, a 17-year veteran at HLS. "He has been insistent that the executive branch be subject to the unitary control of the president. With respect to free speech issues, he has been very skeptical of the notion that it is permissible to restrain hate speech or sexually harassing speech without infringing on the First Amendment...