President Obama – having nothing better to talk about in his record – spent tonight on Jay Leno taking wildly out of context Richard Mourdock’s defense of his pro-life position even in cases of rape and incest, a position that may not be politically poll-tested but is morally admirable. Obama, desperate to stem the bleeding with female voters, is trying to cast Republicans as somehow sympathetic to rapists.

But it’s Obama who has a voting record of being soft on rapists and other sex offenders. Erick covered this in 2008, but it’s worth revisiting here because it illustrates how Obama, four years into his tenure as President of the United States, is willing to stake his entire presidency on hoping nobody notices his actual record:

In 1999, Barack Obama was the only member of the Illinois State Senate to vote against a bill that prohibited convicted criminal sex abusers from getting early release. The amendment to the “County Jail Good Behavior Allowance Act” provided that a person in a county jail may not receive a good behavior allowance if he is convicted of criminal sexual assault against a minor who is also a family member or if the criminal were to be convicted of criminal sexual abuse or aggravated sexual abuse. The legislation, S.B. 485 (IL 1999), passed 54-1.

Likewise, Barack Obama refused to support Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan’s effort to toughen laws on pedophiles and rapists by revamping the “Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act.” The legislation, among other things, required disclosure of mental health records of a person being prosecuted as a sexually violent person. It also beefed up crimes against incarcerated sexual predators by employees of prisons. The legislation, H.B. 2008 (IL 2001) passed 47-1.

Obama also refused to support legislation in 1999 that would protect the privacy of sex-abuse victims by allowing the victims to request the trial records be sealed. Naturally though, he later reversed himself.

In 2003, Obama would not vote at all on H.B. 338 when it crossed over to the Illinois Senate. That legislation made sex offenders ineligible to sit on school boards.

Perhaps most troubling though, was Obama’s 2001 vote against H.B. 1912. The legislation came about in response to a brutal gang murder in Chicago and was designed to put gang members who kill in furtherance of gang activity on death row. Obama voted against the legislation and he even spoke out against the bill on the Senate floor. He claimed to be concerned that the term will be used to “target” certain neighborhoods. The legislation passed 44-9.

Consistent with that theme, Obama voted no on creating the offense of “unlawful contact with street gang members.” The legislation provided that it would be a Class A misdeamenor for a person who is sentenced to probation to knowingly have contact with a street gang member if a condition of probation was for the person to refrain from contact. The legislation, S.B. 1846 (IL 1998) passed 54-3, but not with Obama’s support.

It’s all well and good for Obama to say he is against rape. But when he had the opportunity to vote for tougher crimes against pedophiles, gang members who murder, and sexual violent criminals, each time Obama stuck up for the criminals and not the victims.