Well, if they wrote AS senators rather than friends of Nancy Brinker, that probably qualifies. - Edit 1
Before modification by Joel at 03/02/2012 10:28:10 PM
I never got the impression any lawmakers applied any pressure either way, at least not in official capacity. I doubt anyone could spend as much time in Bush 43s administration as Nancy Brinker did without acquiring a few far right friends (or have been named an Ambassador by Bush without already having plenty,) but that is not the same as a Congressman applying pressure AS a Congressman rather than a friend and/or ally.
Oh, I'm entirely sure pressure was applied, likely from all sorts and sides. Incidentally "Update II - Komen: Future Funding not assured". So witness that they are now in utter meltdown mode and I'm guessing their attempts to appease everyone will backfire horribly, not that I blame them.
Trying to appease all sides is usually a spectacular failure; one would have thought Obama had proven that (as big a football fan as he supposedly is one would have thought someone told him to dance with the one who brung him; oh, well.) At this point, their best bet is probably to shut up for a while and let things die down a bit before any more statements, since anything and everything they say now will just make it worse. The rule, though it can be demanding of ones discipline, is that when in a hole one should STOP DIGGING.
I'm only citing the article though Fox isn't the only one saying that, but the rumor mill has it a lot of lobbyists made a lotta lotta phone calls. The official specifics, which was mentioned at the bottom of the article, were 26 senators writing to ask them to reconsider. And that personally bugs me, I like to think I'd say the same if 26 GOP senators had written them to ask them to stop, and I probably would have, but who knows? But it is that letter I have issues with, even though I'm sure it was entirely polite. Not that I don't think politicians should utterly avoid criticizing or involving themselves with charities but that's a bit extreme for a fairly unconnected matter, IMHO.
Maybe I am cutting it too finely, but it makes a difference to me whether they used stamps or franking privileges. A senator should be allowed personal feelings and personal appeals apart from their office so long as they do not involve the office. It sounds like those senators did, which would make it political pressure; not sure though.
My own impression (nothing more) is Nancy Brinker had intended the break with Planned Parenthood for a while and thought the House investigation (which even the Komens statement calls "political" and explicitly denies is "criminal") plus a timely new "rule" gave her cover to do so. Again, apparently she was mistaken.
So, I agree with you: Politicizing a charity is bad for the charity. My guess is all the Komen executives who resigned in the last 24 hours agree also.
Well, I hate to criticize them but as I said to Ray, piper, dues. I regret that this happened but I consider this something of an inevitable consequence to pushing a charity that hard and visibly over the years, KFC aside, I really do worry that our tendency to have pop causes distracts from equally important work, but I'd also guess the net money raised for the collective cause is higher than if they hadn't. No, I'm not so much beating on anyone for what happened, even the various politicos and pundits who jumped in, just bemoaning, as I said, the inevitability of the jackals getting in the door once the whiff of power and influence emerge.
Nature of the beast, but Komen set themselves up for it. Again, we should not pretend the decision happened in a vacuum. Also once again, I am forced to wonder why Komen bothered funding cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood in the first place since it seems to have made this day inevitable. Perhaps it was not inevitable from the start, but a certain small but vocal element within a certain political party made it so due to that partys connections with Komens founder. In that event, I am back to my last response to rt: However this ends, whether it was a political matter was decided the moment Komen made their first announcement (and the subsequent one you linked pretty much says that outright, without stating specific causes.)