Yesterday's Washington Post announced NARAL won't endorse any candidate for VA guv. The GOP candidate, former AG Jerry Kilgore, is pro-life with the rape, incest, and life of the mother exceptions. The Dem candidate, Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine, is pro-abortion with "appropriate and reasonable checks." But NARAL won't tolerate any "checks," which in Kaine's case are a partial birth abortion ban and parental notification.

NARAL completely rejects what it would term the lesser of two evils and so risks losing more ground. But that is the position it must take. If it condones any limits on abortion, it is acknowledging there is something wrong with abortion, and it can't do that.

This dovetails with another Post article yesterday, "Democrats feel heat from Left on Roberts," which said, in part:

Major liberal groups accused Democratic senators yesterday of showing too little stomach for opposing John G. Roberts Jr.'sSupreme Court nomination....

The day's events revealed the tensions on the Democratic side as senators and liberal interest groups make different strategic calculations on how to position themselves for next month's nomination showdown. The interest groups want senators to be more aggressive.

Meanwhile, some senators, according to aides, blame the groups for not doing more to build public opposition and to create the political climate in which it would be easier to speak out against Roberts without looking extreme. Liberal leaders say that they simply were being responsible and prudent, and that now their patience is paying off.

The situation is unwinnable for both Dems and pro-abort organizations. The former must find a way to compromise on abortion or risk further loss of political ground. But the latter will never compromise.