JACKSON - Who is 4th District Rep. Ronnie Shows and what does he believe? Shows - the Democrat from Bassfield - makes a clear delineation of who he is and what he believes on his congressional Web site. It's very impressive.
Shows tells us in an archived press release on Jan. 17, 2001, of his pride in winning re-appointment as a "whip" in the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus.
"I am committed to the pro-life cause," said Shows. "We must be vigilant that the sanctity of human life is never compromised. Our resolve to protect the unborn could be tested in the coming years." Prophetic words, those.
Shows also makes clear that he is a "Blue Dog Coalition" Democrat - defined as "conservative and moderate Democrats" interested in "common sense, conservative compassion."
The congressman also makes public his membership in the Bethel Baptist Church - a Southern Baptist church.
Bottom line, Shows tells us he's a pro-life, conservative Southern Baptist Democrat. That's the self-image he faithfully promotes through preening press releases, Web sites and photo opportunities. Nobody promotes himself better.
Interestingly enough, however, this pro-life, conservative Southern Baptist Mississippi congressman has developed a serious case of lockjaw while a pro-life, conservative Southern Baptist Mississippi federal judge is being unfairly pilloried for his religious beliefs by liberal, pro-abortion Democrats in the Senate and falsely accused as a racist as well.
Shows has spoken not a public word in defense of U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering. Apparently, his staunch pro-life, conservative Southern Baptist beliefs are a little weaker than his political loyalty to the national Democratic Party.
Is it that Shows is hoping for Pickering Sr. to fail in his confirmation hearings because he's got to run against Pickering Jr. in a congressional race later this year? Certainly, political self-preservation should trump pro-life, conservative Southern Baptist beliefs, shouldn't it?
Is it that Shows knows that Pickering isn't a virulent racist as portrayed by 2nd District Rep. Bennie Thompson, but that Shows is now hard-pressed not to offend the fellow Democrat who has become his chief political patron as a result of the ongoing congressional redistricting fight? Bennie see, Ronnie do.
Is it that in pursuit of winning that redistricting fight under Thompson's tutelage, Shows has now publicly jumped into political bed with some of America's best-known liberal House Democrats - Barney Frank, Robert Wexler, Maxine Waters, John Conyers and Sheila Jackson Lee (Enron's House prom queen) - in challenging the U.S. Justice Department's pre-clearance activities in the Mississippi case? The paper trail leads there.
Or is it that Shows knows Judge Pickering is being tarred and feathered by extreme pro-abortion groups and civil rights groups who haven't produced a single judicial decision in which the judge has failed to follow federal law and that his status as a conservative Southern Baptist is the root of their objections - and he just doesn't care because it suits his personal political agenda not to care?
There are three Democratic congressmen in Mississippi, and only the New Bobbsey Twins - Thompson and Shows - are opposing Pickering's confirmation.
Bo Gex, a spokesman for Democratic 5th District Rep. Gene Taylor of Bay St. Louis, said Monday that Taylor "supported Pickering's confirmation."
Press releases and Web sites aside, Shows' silence on the Pickering confirmation shows who he is and what he believes - he's a liberal Democrat who is standing arm-in-arm with those who oppose putting a pro-life, conservative Southern Baptist on the appellate bench.
