Stupak = Chutzpah: 'people tried to use abortion as a tool to stop health-care reform'

[BurtWorm]

Angry Mouse at dailykos posted this:


http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/tONXl0HHd_U/-Stupak-disappointed-abortion-almost-derailed-health-care-reform

Stupak disappointed abortion almost derailed health care reform

Um, really?

Ultimately, what stings the most isn't the hatred. (After all, people hate cops, lawyers, and politicians, and I've been all three.) It's that people tried to use abortion as a tool to stop health-care reform, even after protections were added.

Yeah. It really sucked the way "people" tried to stop the health care reform bill. Like this guy:

"We won because <the Democrats> need us," Stupak said. "If they are going to summarily dismiss us by taking the pen to that language, there will be hell to pay. I don't say it as a threat, but if they double-cross us, there will be 40 people who won't vote with them the next time they need us -- and that could be the final version of this bill."

What a jerk!

Stupak isn't just disappointed at how "people" tried to use abortion to stop health care reform. He's also disappointed that some of his best friends -- like the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, whom he apparently keeps on speed dial -- wouldn't help him in his hour of need.

We also put in a final call to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which had been among my strongest supporters during the fall.

I was disappointed by what I heard. No, no, no, no, they said. We need statutory law. But an executive order can have the full force of law, I said. Lincoln used one to free the slaves. George W. Bush used one to block stem-cell research using human embryos. And President Obama assures me that this is "ironclad." Besides, I said, it's time to negotiate or lose our chance to shape the bill. Help me with it? No, they said. Won't you at least look at it? No.

That call changed my relationship with the pro-life movement.

Aw, poor Stupak. Double-crossed by Democrats, abandoned by all his anti-choice friends, and forced to "endure TV, radio, and bus-stop ads" -- all because some jerks in Congress "tried to use abortion as a tool to stop health-care reform."

[BrklynLiberal]

1. duh. Gee whiz..poor little boy. Guess he never figured he would have to pay the piper.

[bluestateguy]

2. The difference is that I think Stupak genuinely wanted a health care bill to pass

The anti-choice Republicans just wanted to use that issue to kill the whole bill as a wedge issue among Democrats. Stupak was not going to fall into that trap.

[SoxFan]

4. I agree

Too many people in our party make the mistake of equating opposition to abortion with an adherence to the whole conservative agenda. Taht's unfortunate.

I honestly believe that Stupak comes to his pro-life position from a liberal direction. His record on labor and civil rights are superb, so I have to think that he is a "seamless garment liberal", someone who sees his stance on abortion as an extension of his belief in protecting those in the dawn, dusk, and shadows of life.

The late Gov. Bob Casey was probably the most visible adherent of this set of beliefs, but there are plenty more of us (yes, I am one) out there.

[BurtWorm]

5. Well it was Stupak of him to lead the charge then.

Abortion didn't have to be a part of the health care discussion at all. The Stupak amendment made explicit what the Hyde amendment already implied, that any federally funded insurance plan would not be allowed to pay for an abortion. Obviously, the Catholic church wanted to use that in to push as far as they could toward a full federal ban and the Republicans were only too happy to have any excuse to kill health care reform.

Stupak was a useful idiot, just not useful enough.

[CanonRay]

3. One less idiot in Congress

whether he be Dem or Rethug. All in all a good thing.