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Show UhfiJitah. Statesman Opinion DEMOCRACY From page 10 obstacles; if it overcomes those, there's a veto threat from the White House. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConneli, R-Ky., opposes the measure, and the bill's supporters may not have the votes to prevent a filibuster. Still, Utah's two Republican senators could play a key role. Sen. Bob Bennett supports the bill. Sen. Orrin Hatch had been supportive, but a change to the bill that makes the Utah seat at large, instead of by district, has caused him to have some reservations. If both Utah senators get on board, it could help get the measure to the floor. Moreover, it will have a passionate champion in Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., who has vowed quick action. Certainly, there is a way to go before history will really be made. Yet, as Norton said, "Nobody ever thought we would get this far." This editorial appeared in Friday's Washington Post. • APPROVAL RATINGS From page 10 politics, ifs risky to go against the wisdom of the warriors. And yet, thafs exactly what the Democrats are doing. That is, many Americans who oppose the Iraq war are nonetheless inclined to see something squirrelly about congressional attempts to "micromanage" the fighting. So here's the bottom line: In politics, popularity is relative. The parties are judged not by themselves but in relation to each other. The president doesn't look so good. But if the Congress doesn't look so good either - then the president isn't in such bad shape. One is reminded of a joke from President Reagan illustrating this reality of comparative politics: Two men are walking in the woods, and they see a bear coming toward them. The first man quickly puts on his running shoes. The second man says, "You can't outrun that bear." To which the first man responds, " I don't have to outrun the bear - I just have to outrun you!" Speaking of outrunning, it's already apparent, early in 2007, that the Democrats not only inadvertently have helped Bush but, in addition, have given the Republicans good arguments for their holding on to the White House in 2008. James P. Pinkerton is a columnist for Newsday. Turnaround on abortion The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday executed an unconscionable U-turn on abortion, upholding a restrictive federal law that is virtually indistinguishable from a Nebraska statute it struck down only seven years ago. For all nis paeans to precedent during his Senate confirmation hearings, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joined in Nat'lView 4 decis i o n Other Voices ing the tendentiously titled Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. But it was Roberts' fellow Bush appointee, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who made the difference by voting opposite to the way his predecessor, Sandra Day O'Connor, did in 2000. If there is any silver lining, ifs that only two justices, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scaiia, suggested that Roe vs. Wade should be overturned outright. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was correct when she said in her dissent that the majority gave short shrift to previous abortion-rights decisions, including the 1992 Planned Parenthood vs. Casey decision in which the court reaffirmed the "essential holding" of Roe: that women have a constitutional right to legal abortions. Disappointingly, it was one of the authors of the Casey opinion — Justice Anthony M. Kennedy - who wrote Wednesday's majority opinion. Kennedy argued that the federal law, interpreted properly, was narrower than Nebraska's. It's a distinction without a difference. Both laws banned an exceedingly rare secondtrimester abortion technique -- properly called dilation and extraction -- in which a doctor partially extracts a fetus from the uterus into the birth canal, where he then collaps- es the skull by suctioning its contents. Neither law provided an exception to preserve the health or the woman. Kennedy did say that, although the court rejected the law's unconstitutionality " o n its face," doctors could still argue that there were " w e l l defined" circumstances in which the procedure would be necessary. But that cumbersome option could have been avoided if the court simply had told Congress, as it told Nebraska, that it must provide a health exception. This muddled decision doesn't attack the basic holding of Roe vs. Wade, and it will have no effect on the vast majority of abortions performed in this country. But Ginsburg is right that it is a retreat, and one that can't be explained by anything other than a change in the court's membership. 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