Bart Stupak: Tea Party didn't force me to leave

[BeatleBoot]

From the Detroit Free Press

http://www.freep.com/article/20100410/NEWS06/4100357/1318/Bart-Stupak-Tea-Party-didnt-force-me-to-leave

Bart Stupak: Tea Party didn't force me to leave

<snip>

Stupak, a Democrat from Menominee in the Upper Peninsula, said it wasn't the Tea Party that was sending him away. Political analysts were largely in agreement that beating the nine-term incumbent in such a huge district without a single large media market was nearly impossible.

Stupak had a history of independence and delivering projects for the district, and, as chairman of a subcommittee, he could affect policy and attract earmarks. He told the Free Press earlier this week he was more than ready to defend his health care vote as one that delivered on a promise he made in his first congressional campaign in 1992.


If anything, he said, the prospect of health care reform legislation kept him around longer than he might have otherwise stayed.


"We've been struggling with this six years," he said of the idea of retirement.


As for whether the threats, calls and curses -- the Stupaks took the phone off the hook at home -- played a role in his decision, Stupak said no.

<more>

[gratuitous]

1. It was his anti-woman pals

You know the ones. They like to bully and get physical with scared young women who don't know where else to turn when they head to the clinic. Easy prey, not likely to fight back. Oh, and they like to pull guns on unsuspecting victims, whether they're in their kitchen fixing breakfast pre-dawn, or standing in the nave of their church, greeting visitors and handing out bulletins. Did I mention that Rep. Stupak's erstwhile friends also like to set off bombs?

Bart apparently didn't care for the phone messages and e-mails from the anti-woman crowd. Too much for him to face. One can only wonder what he would have done if he'd encountered the same sort of personal, up-front opposition that Dr. Tiller or a scared teen-ager have to deal with from these terrorists.

[BeatleBoot]

3. You don't live in his district

That's for sure.

Any more broad brushes that you would like to stroke?


Just sayin'

:shrug:

[gratuitous]

4. No, I don't

But you don't have to live in his district to know that as soon as he fell from the One True Religion Against Women by failing to push for the most restrictive, punitive anti-abortion language possible, Rep. Stupak was in for a whole lot of vitriol. True, he'd been subjected to opprobrium during his anti-woman stance, but for some reason, he was able to weather that criticism. Once he compromised the Undying Principles, he started getting criticism from his erstwhile allies. Allies who've shown they won't cavil at violence up to and including lethal violence against their perceived enemies. And that's when Stupak announced his retirement.

Those are the plain facts, and it doesn't matter where anyone lives.

[BeatleBoot]

5. Really, you need to read the polling data, dude.

"Erstwhile" and "approbium" aside.

He is still well liked in his district.

Th UP voted resoundingly for a Democratic Governor and the area remains a Democratic stronghold overall.

Just another Michigan Democrat who knows the region and can call out stupid shit when they read it.

[slampoet]

6. Really you couldn't be more full of it.

Put away the dictionary and talk to a living human being for your information.

[RandomThoughts]

2. Although I did not agree that abortion issues should derail health care.

And it did not, I think Stupak is a mostly good person, at least from the interviews I saw of him on TV. He is not perfect, but nobody is.


I am curious, how does not having a single large media market effect his chances to win? What does that phrase say?