The Providence Journal’s Editorial Page does a pretty good job. If that job is an awkward misrepresentation of facts, spun to serve their pseudo-independent conservative agenda, then yeah, they totally rock it.

I was gonna rip on the editorial board’s Froma Harrop, who lives in Providence and writes a syndicated column, last week when I read her column, “McCain no anti-abortion fanatic.” Gawd, you can tell from the title what this is gonna be: “Don’t worry, pro-choice voters. It’s gonna be okay no matter what.”

Persons with the unique ability to read McCain’s website and research his voting record have been buzzing over the wackness of Harrop’s column, including more notable writers than yours truly. So I’ll just leave it to Katha Pollitt of The Nation, who echoes my daddy, Frank Rich, when she says:

Are there feminist Hillary supporters who hate Obama so much they’ll vote for McCain just to show the Democratic Party how ticked off they are? Yes, and I get e-mails from all five of them.

Keep reading for a deeper analysis of everything Harrop gets wrong:

In the Providence Journal five days after Clinton suspended her campaign, columnist Froma Harrop was typical: “Would McCain stock the Supreme Court with foes of Roe v. Wade?… The answer is unclear but probably ‘no.’” After all, in 1999 he told the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board that he “would not support repeal” of Roe because women would seek unsafe, illegal procedures. Since the Democrats will control Congress, Harrop figures, “McCain would probably choose a cipher” rather than get bogged down in the abortion wars. This fake shrewdness, buttressed by much use of “probably,” “seems,” “may” and “my guess is,” has as much value as a bet by a drunk in a bar. We all have our hunches–usually they magically line up with our wishes and preferences, in Harrop’s case, her support for Clinton. By the end of the column she’s castigating Obama for his “present” votes on abortion bills in the Illinois Assembly, and by the time she’s finished, you’d never know that NARAL and Planned Parenthood give Obama 100 percent ratings and McCain a big fat zero.

So congratulations, Ms. Froma Harrop. I bestow upon you the Providence Daily Dose’s first ever “Embarrassing Local of the Week” award.

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