November 10, 2009

11/10: This Will Not Stand

The netroots remain very upset about the passage of Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-MI) amendment to the House health care bill, which prohibited insurance plans purchased with government subsidies from covering abortions. Liberal bloggers are calling it "the most expansive restriction on access to abortion Congress has passed" and warning that it will drive women out of the Dem party. Another blogger complains: "Apparently, even though it is not listed on his official biography and he has no apparent medical training, Stupak thinks of himself as a doctor and feels comfortable inserting himself in between millions of women and their physicians." Meanwhile, lefty bloggers are working hard to ensure that the Senate doesn't attach its own version of Stupak's amendment to the Senate health care bill.

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• Pro-choice organizations are taking a lot of heat from the netroots following the passage of the Stupak amendment. digby thinks NARAL "needs to hold [Pres.] Nancy Keenan accountable for being completely ineffectual over and over again." DavidNYC argues that "if groups like NARAL and EMILY's List ever want to start being effective," they need to support primary challenges for Dems who voted for the Stupak amendment. Meanwhile, Jane Hamsher is urging Planned Parenthood and NARAL to score the House health care reform bill in order to "keep members of the Senate from coming out in favor of it."
• After liberal bloggers (McCarter, Cooper, digby) criticized Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) for saying that she could live with the Stupak amendment being in the final health care bill, McCaskill came out against the Stupak amendment on her Twitter feed. Meanwhile, one lefty blogger estimates that abortion opponents lack the 60 votes in the Senate that will be necessary to attach a version of the Stupak amendment to the Senate bill.
• Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas is urging his readers to stop donating money to the DCCC, since "the bulk of the DCCC's money" is going to go to Dems who voted for the Stupak amendment and/or against the health care reform bill. On the other hand, liberal bloggers (Empsall, Willis) are praising the vulnerable House Dems who voted for the bill.
• Liberal bloggers (Yglesias, Benen, Clawson) are arguing that it's in Sen. Blanche Lincoln's (D-AR) electoral interests to support health care reform.
• A group of prominent liberal bloggers is boycotting the DNC "until the President and the Democratic party keep their promises to the gay community, our families, and our friends."
• Conservative bloggers (Macomber, Lopez, Allahpundit) are criticizing RNC Chair Michael Steele for saying that white GOPers are "scared of me."
• Conservative bloggers (Malkin, Hawkins, McCain, Bennett) are arguing that the U.S. Army's emphasis on "political correctness" and "diversity" played a role in enabling an Army psychiatrist to kill 13 people at Ft. Hood.

STUPAK: Going Well Beyond Hyde?

Liberal bloggers are furious about Stupak's amendment:

• Daily Kos' mcjoan: "This is the most expansive restriction on access to abortion Congress has passed. It goes well beyond Hyde, which has never been codified and which only governs federal, public plans. It's particularly galling that it comes under the umbrella of healthcare 'reform.'"
• Atrios: "Stupak doesn't care if women die. I suppose that's unfair, it's possible he's too stupid to understand the consequences of what he's doing, but I'm not sure that's any better."
• Balloon Juice's John Cole: "Apparently, even though it is not listed on his official biography and he has no apparent medical training, Stupak thinks of himself as a doctor and feels comfortable inserting himself in between millions of women and their physicians. Not since Dr. [Bill] Frist's remote diagnosis of Terri Schiavo have we seen such arrogance. And while I am sick and tired of the debate about abortion, I'm even sicker of the C-Street panty-sniffers like Stupak. Why is it always helmet-haired old white guys who are such busybodies when it comes to a piece of anatomy they don't have?"
• Moulitsas: "The weird thing about the coathanger amendment is that I thought Republicans didn't want government between a doctor and patient. Hypocrisy?"

The Washington Post's Ezra Klein observes that the U.S. gov't already subsidizes abortion: "Rep. Bart Stupak's amendment did not make abortion illegal. And it did not block the federal government from subsidizing abortion. All it did was block it from subsidizing abortion for poorer women. Stupak's amendment stated that the public option cannot provide abortion coverage, and that no insurer participating on the exchange can provide abortion coverage to anyone receiving subsidies. But as Rep. Jim Cooper points out in the interview below, the biggest federal subsidy for private insurance coverage is untouched by Stupak's amendment. It's the $250 billion the government spends each year making employer-sponsored health-care insurance tax-free."

Daily Kos' Jed Lewison thinks Stupak's amendment is "electoral poison" for Dems: "From the Democratic Party's perspective, the Stupak amendment is electoral poison. As mcjoan wrote earlier, the amendment represents the most sweeping Federal restriction on abortion ever, and it would be crazy to think that won't impact support for the Democratic Party from pro-choice women. [...] Without this defining difference between the Democratic and Republican parties, some women will undoubtedly drift towards the GOP, and others will drift away from politics."

STUPAK II: Obama Tries To Split The Baby

mcjoan is pleased that Obama declared that the House bill shouldn't change "the status quo" regarding the ban on federal funding for abortions: "I hope [Obama] follows up those remarks with phone calls to [NE Sen.] Ben Nelson and [PA Sen.] Bob Casey, because they're working on their own version of Stupak as we speak. Stupak goes well beyond Hyde, as President Obama iterates in this interview -- this bill is not intended to change Hyde."

However, other liberal bloggers are upset that Obama expressed support for the status quo:

• AMERICAblog's John Aravosis: "King Solomon strikes again. Whatever the issue, Obama won't defend the core Democratic constituency. He'll try to please the right just as much as the left. And regardless of how much he said he wanted to change politics in DC, he was elected as a Democrat, not a half-Republican."
• digby: "It's just great seeing the president defending his principles like that. I'm just not sure what the principle actually is. It certainly isn't that a woman has a fundamental right to make her own reproductive decisions. Evidently, they are signaling that the Hyde Amendment is their backstop once again. [...W]hy in the hell do [liberals] go into every discussion having already given away everything but their bottom line? Especially when the only people with whom they are negotiating are ostensibly on their own team, where presumably the leadership and the president have some extra sway? If there was ever a case for the liberals to go in with guns blazing, demanding repeal of the Hyde Amendment, demanding single payer, demanding huge tax increases on the wealthy, demanding open border access to the health care system (which some countries have.) Then they would have had something to work with."

Meanwhile, liberal bloggers are pleased that 41 House Dems have pledged to vote against the final health care reform bill if it includes Stupak's amendment:

• TalkLeft's Big Tent Democrat: "This is excellent. Whether this is a real threat or merely a bargaining position, it is precisely how to fight on health care reform to the end. This is Madman Political Bargaining. Good to see progressives trying it."
• Aravosis: "[This] is good news, since today we also learned that the White House spokesman Robert Gibbs didn't have an opinion on the extreme anti-abortion provision that was added to the House health care reform bill at the least minute."

Conservative blogger Jim Geraghty thinks these 41 Dems are bluffing: "I don't know if [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi is actually laughing at the threat, but it might be justified. Forty-one liberal Democrats would vote to cripple the president on his signature issue? Nah. They'll fold."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Hooray For MoveOn!

NRO's Geraghty thinks the GOP will benefit from MoveOn's ad campaign against House Dems who voted against health care reform:

"I can think of no better way for MoveOn.org to spend its money than to run ads attacking conservative Blue Dogs like Mike Ross of Arkansas and Glenn Nye of Virginia on the health-care vote. Because if there's one thing a freshman like Nye needs as he seeks reelection next year, it's ads reminding the liberals in his district that he's not worth supporting! The combination of disenchanted, unenthusiastic liberals and fired-up conservatives worked wonders in Virginia this year; let's see more of it next year! MoveOn.org: Doing its part to help ensure a GOP House in 2010."

LEST WE FORGET: Poll: 100% Of Grandsons Talented

From The Onion:

"ATLANTA -- A Zogby poll of 1,542 American grandparents published Monday found that grandsons were described as 'very' to 'extremely' talented by 1,542 of the respondents. 'Participants in the poll were emphatic in their descriptions of the talents of grandsons in fields as diverse as advertising and sales, choral performance, baseball, talking, crawling, making their beds, video games, and instructing their elders on proper cell-phone use,' pollster Tom Waterton said. 'In addition, an overwhelming percentage of grandchildren were described as outgoing, sharp, and looking just like Uncle Andy, you remember Uncle Andy, he was always up to something, too bad he passed so young, he would have loved the grandchild in question.' Sources at Zogby admitted that the survey was incomplete, as several hundred pollsters are still unable to get their assigned grandparents off the phone."

Posted by Ian Faerstein at November 10, 2009 12:31 PM