Signs and Wonders 08.10

What happened in Kansas? Eight moderate Republicans got a retirement party on Tuesday in Kansas. One incumbent was Sen. Tim Owens, chairman of the Senate Reapportionment Committee, an important legislative committee. Owens had received the endorsement of Planned Parenthood and was a major "roadblock" to pro-life bills, said Kansas for Life development director David Gittrich. Gittrich told CitizenLink that Owens "tried to kill every pro-life bill. We were still able to get legislation passed, but now that (Owens) is not there, the roads are repaved." And it's not just Kansas, the victory of conservative Ted Cruz in the U.S. Senate Republican primary in Texas last week is another indication that, as they say in the Lone Star State, "The only thing you find in the middle of the road is a yellow stripe and dead armadillos."

Obama ad backfires. Priorities USA, a pro-Obama Super PAC, ran what conservative activist Gary Bauer called a "despicable ad" accusing Mitt Romney of being responsible for a woman's death from cancer. The ad says Joe Soptic, laid off from a company owned by Romney's Bain Capital, had no health insurance when his wife got cancer and subsequently died. The ad is so bad that even Team Obama is doing its best to distance itself from it. Obama's deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter told CNN, "I don't know the facts about when Mr. Soptic's wife got sick or the facts about his health insurance." Another campaign spokesperson said, "We have nothing, no involvement, with any ads that are done by Priorities USA." But Politico begs to disagree. It reported that Soptic took part in an official Obama campaign conference call two months ago in which he discussed the details of his layoff, his wife's illness, and her death. He also appeared in an official Obama campaign ad.

Chick-fil-A welcome here. The mayors of Boston and Chicago may not want Chick-fil-A, but other towns are begging for them to locate in their towns. Harrisburg, N.C., is considering a resolution of support for the chain and its president, Dan Cathy. Townspeople are hanging banners along a major thoroughfare inviting Chick-fil-A to Harrisburg. According to Rasmussen, Harrisburg is in the mainstream. Sixty-one percent of Americans have a favorable view of the chain. Asked if they would boycott the restaurant for its views, only 13 percent of U.S. voters said "yes."

Hawaii leis down the law. A federal court on Wednesday upheld a Hawaii law defining marriage as the union between one man and one woman. Hawaii passed a marriage amendment in 1998, with 69 percent of the vote. Wednesday's ruling affirms that amendment, according to Alliance Defending Freedom legal counsel Dale Schowengerdt. "The people of Hawaii adopted a constitutional amendment to uphold marriage, and the court rightly concluded that the democratic process shouldn't be short-circuited by judicial decree," Schowengerdt said. The fight for marriage in Hawaii is not over. In 2011, legislators passed a bill creating same-sex civil unions. That law is part of a strategy by same-sex "marriage" advocates to challenge state marriage amendments and laws.