Seymour Wrist Slapped on First-Lady Reference

California Sen. John Seymour, who is trying to highlight his support for abortion rights, drew the ire of GOP Chairman Richard N. Bond earlier this week--for trying to cite Barbara Bush in a short speech at the Republican Convention.

Seymour--who is locked in a battle for his Senate seat with Democrat Dianne Feinstein, an advocate of abortion rights--is trying to emphasize his own position. To his consternation, polls show that many voters think he opposes abortion--as does the party platform, in no uncertain terms. It calls for a constitutional amendment to ban the procedure.

Seymour’s prepared text included this phrasing: “I’m pro-choice, pro-family and pro-jobs. To say I’m entirely happy with our party platform would be untrue. I think our First Lady, Barbara Bush, is right.”

Mrs. Bush told interviewers last week that she believes such a “personal choice” has no place in a party platform. Her statement was interpreted in some quarters as an attempt to send a signal to abortion-rights supporters that, despite the rigid platform language, the White House is not so unyielding.

Seymour said that Bond pounced on him minutes before he was to deliver the speech at Monday morning’s session and demanded that he yank the sentence: “I think our First Lady, Barbara Bush, is right.”

The senator did so, substituting another abortion-rights statement: “To say I’m entirely happy with our party platform would be untrue. I believe for one that it should be changed. “

Seymour said Wednesday that Bond complained the speech had not been reviewed by convention officials. “He claimed (the speech) had not been cleared. I merely responded by saying I didn’t know where he got that because I had submitted the speech (for review) 18 hours before, and no one had touched a period or a comma.”

Bond did not ask what, if anything, he planned to substitute, Seymour said.

“I was about two minutes away from going to the podium,” Seymour said. “He wasn’t angry so much as saying: ‘You know, senator, you really shouldn’t drag Barbara Bush into this.’ From my perspective, I thought he was just doing his job.”

Bond did not respond to queries about the episode.

Seymour said he was somewhat surprised that Bond objected to the reference to Mrs. Bush.

“In the convention environment, you find that things are pretty closely orchestrated,” Seymour said. “I was just amazed that having submitted the speech and knowing full well it was going to be read by people high in the (Bush) campaign, they hadn’t changed a thing” before Bond complained.