The pieces were all in place yesterday for conservative victory.....a united Republican party, with "principled", "pro-life" Democrats joining in opposition to what probably amounts to the most disastrous piece of legislation in at least 50 years: the bill we know as "Obamacare".
As we should have expected, Rep. Bart Stupak(D-Mich.), who led the coalition of "pro-life" Democrats in opposition to this bill due to its providing of federal funds for elective abortions, cut a deal that would allow him and his cohorts to vote with their party, and hence vote AGAINST their constituents, including those still in the womb. The "deal" is basically that Obama issued an executive order ensuring that no federal funding will go to pay for abortion under the health reform plans. In addition, Stupak got to state his concerns about abortion funding in the bill on the House floor during the debate.
This is a complete charade.......a total joke. First of all, everyone knows that an executive order does nothing in this situation, and can be rescinded by Obama or any other president on a whim. Secondly, and more importantly, this represents something that disgusts me today in congressional politics. Democrats are perfectly aware that most of their constituents did not want this bill passed into law, and many individual congressmen knew that going on record with a vote for this legislation would jeopardize or ruin their chances at reelection. So what happens from there is a dance that is done for the public to see, which allows the congressman to appear to be in opposition, then finally seeing the light to change his position at the last minute. He is then presented as "courageous" or "heroic".
Then there is the dance during the actual casting of the votes. If you've ever watched votes cast on the House floor on C-Span, you may notice that many times there are many "holdouts". There's a column on the far right that shows votes not cast. How, after 15 minutes, of voting, could there be someone who hasn't voted. We know they have already decided. These are the congressmen who are waiting. They are waiting for the outcome to be decided, so that they can't be labeled as having cast "the deciding vote". Many times it's even worse, and they are waiting for the outcome to be decided, so they can safely cast a vote in opposition, to appear to be voting the will of their constituency. This timing is predetermined, and is an outright deceit of the public. These legislators, who are representing districts in which they would be crucified for voting with the party, are strategically allowed to hold out til the end. They'll vote with the party if they must, but once the deciding vote has been cast, they can vote in a way that protects them during election time.
Stupak and his "pro-life" Democrats are the worst of this kind. They have run as "pro-life", and their constituency expects them to vote that way. If they don't, they will be voted out of office and they know it. Therefore, they put on a massive, weeks-long charade in defense of the unborn, only to execute an orchestrated "cave-in" at the 11th hour, abandoning the unborn, and joining Pelosi and the undead in passage of what will prove to be a job-killing, economy-killing, baby-killing bill. Appropriately, Bart Stupak was stripped of a "Defender of Life Award" he was to receive on Wednesday night. I'm guessing he'll be stripped of another title come November.
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