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Driehaus Insists on Stupak Language

It's Amazing What One Terrible Poll Can Do

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  January 17th, 2010 at 01:49 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

I question the timing.

Yesterday SurveyUSA released a poll showing Freshman Democrat Steve Driehaus (bad Steve) trailing former Representative and current challenger Steve Chabot (good Steve) by 17 points. Is it coincidence that on the very day that poll was released, Driehaus placed himself firmly and clearly in the Bart Stupak camp when it comes to abortion funding in the health care rationing bill?

Democratic Rep. Steve Driehaus said he will oppose any version of health care reform legislation that doesn’t clearly prohibit federal funds from being used to pay for abortions.

“I believe in clarity and simplicity, and we should make it simple and clear that taxpayer funds aren’t going to abortion coverage,” said Driehaus, an anti-abortion Catholic from West Price Hill…

Driehaus said other differences between the House and Senate bills also need resolving, including proposals on taxes and fees, a proposed government-run “public” health insurance option, and whether health care exchanges would be state-based or federal.

“At this point in the process, there are tough decisions that need to be hashed out by those willing to support the legislation,” he said.

Bart Stupak has said that he represents 10-12 pro-life Democrats who will vote to kill any health care overhaul that does not include his language against abortion-funding. Driehaus has given himself little wiggle room.

Politically, he’s probably doing the smart thing. Democrats who have already ruled out support for the health care overhaul are seeing little pressure and little public attention; their intentions are already clear. If Driehaus wants to avoid twisting in the wind while leaders hash out details of the bill, his best bet is to declare his conditions clearly now. In that way, no one will be surprised or disappointed when he tells them ‘no’ down the road.

Update: Commenters point out what I probably should have made clear: Driehaus voted for the bill in the House the first time, and took a lot of heat for the vote in his district. One wonders if more Democrats will be tempted to insist on the Stupak language as a way either to kill the bill or to justify a ‘no’ vote that seems even more suicidal than it did a few months ago.

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COMMENTS

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  • cari

    Did Driehaus vote FOR the bill in November and is now changing his vote to no, if Stupak language is not included? Or is his just solidifying his reasons for his prior and future no vote?

    • Third Street

      So between his and Stupak’s statements, and the resignation of Robert Wexler, the Dems officially do not have the 218 votes they did in November.

      • jdp

        They will lose him, almost certainly, if the Stupak language isn’t included.

        • Third Street
      • wendy

        Time is not on the Democrats’ side.

  • RedBeard

    What is that smell? Oh, yeah; FEAR.

  • NDPhog

    Though he’s not my rep (Jean Schmidt is), he spoke at a luncheon hosted by my company. I thanked him for his Stupak vote and he was very adamant that he supported Stupak. I think it is political opportunism, but he is pro-life and his district (the west side of Cincinnati) is also pro-life (home to several large Catholic high-schools like Elder and St. Xavier).

  • renny

    Scott is giving them the willies (pun intended) and the rats are jumping ship. Mixed metaphors.

  • jcincy

    For the most part he takes a pro-life position when comes to straight up or down vote on the abortion.

    However, where he places abortion on the scale of importance remains to be seen when the issue is simply a part of larger piece of legislation.

  • rookwood1

    Jeannie Schmidt is my rep also.

    Driehaus is road kill in Cincinnati and it has nothing to do with abortion. A week before his vote he was all over the local air waves telling voters he was a firm ‘NO’ vote.

    After his vote, he was challenged and denied his previous statement. Only problem with this is the fact that the 250,000 morning listeners he was recanting to were the same 250,000 morning listeners who heard his promise.

    The dog catcher could beat Steve Driehaus, of which he is well aware! And that makes his recent proclaimation interesting…but irrelevant! The Dems will also lose the gov’s seat…handily!

    We are extremely conservative in SW Ohio, and like many others in the country made a statement in 2008. Mistake or not, it was a decision we didn’t take lightly. But the one thing we’ll never give way to is the fact that we deeply despise cowards who betray our trust!

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    are playing up the Stupak position that they know darn well will be ultimately meaningless….. why below…. Why Stupak, he may be the Democrat best chance for the MI Governorship that is already rumored he is running for and ProLife (even false) cred may keep enough voters (SIVV) voters silent (so they hope).

    consider…..

    ABORTION: Democrats don?t follow the Laws they pass (Abortions, as promised to PP – WILL BE COVERED)
    JLenardDetroit Wednesday, September 16th at 12:39AM EDT (link)

    as if they are going to actually care what the final Laws say, they WILL be funding Abortions anyway REGARDLESS?. The LINE ITEM CHARGES that will be paid WON?T SAY: ?ABORTION? THEY WILL BE ?BIRTHING SERVICES? but there just won?t be any LIVE BABY DELIVERY in those ?Services? ?.. I mean really?. We gonna wake up from this usual ?RE-Define the Terms? dodges/scams the Democrats are allowed to get away with?!?!?!

    THERE CAN BE NO COMPROMISE WITH THESE PEOPLE! and these The Senate HC “Gang Of Sicks” (formerly 7, but Hatch left and that didn’t have the fun play on words ;-) lol) are the most dangerous in DC right now!!!!

    Kathy Ireland: best anti-abortion comments ever made and more on her words here

    HR3296, even with Stupak Amendment — the HHS Secretary is the one that will have the sole discretion and is tasked with setting up the criteria of what is minimum coverage as a qualified HC plan under these Laws. They can and will use this alone, if they feel they need to, and if you want to step up and call out that as a conflict with Stupak they’ll just refer you to the LIBERAL ACTIVIST JUDICIAL system (lower Federal courts before it would ever get to SCOTUS) where they’ll tie it all up in the mean-time.

    and

    by giving cover for PLINO’s to vote for the 3296 after the Stupak Amendment. NV would have been the Right strategy IMO…. Who cares if they would have indeed found some other form of coverage and/or PAYOFF to bribe them to vote for 3296, they should have forced them to go for those other methods and continued to expose the horse-trading and manipulation.

    Pro-Life Republicans knew this was just cover (Duplicity) voting….

    Mooncalves led to the Slaughter…. The STUPID (er… Stupak) Amendment is just a strategy boondoggle Republicans stepped in out of LAZINESS and unwillingness to VOTE NO and have to go back and actually engage, explain, educate, constituents as to WHY it was all a SHAME/SHELL-GAME Vote and a NO vote the Right vote (and NOT, by any means would it have been a Pro-Abortion vote). LAZINESS. A NV (Not-Voting) would have been the appropriate stance (no-one could claim they were Pro-Abortion funding that a NO vote would have allowed).

    Further…. just proves, IMO, my whole CINOs/PLINOs, and Pavlovian-Blue-Dogs contention. The Stupak Amendment just provided cover for them to vote for the POS which should never have happened, because…
    1- (supposedly) Removing Abortion funding from it does NOT make the rest of the Bill ?GOOD? – as if the Abortion funding was/is the only ‘BAD? thing in it!
    2- Duplicity Votes – Setting up Duplicity Votes – the have it both way Game Politicians play to be able to say anything during Campaigns
    3- Abortion funding WILL STILL OCCUR – Liberals/Democrats ALWAYS consider themselves ABOVE THE LAW and ignore them when convenient to their causes…
    3A- The ‘Abortion funding exclusion’ will NOT survive the Conference/Consolidation ?compromise? process when it comes time to join in Conference/Committee the House and Senate Bills
    3B- Liberal bureaucrats will still pay for ABORTIONS paying for them billed as something like a generic ‘Pregnancy Services’ term – or the like BS (as discussed in one of the Townhalls primers: here, here, here, here, here, and HC issues summary here, don?t recall off-hand which one)
    3C- If they ALLOW it to survive into the Final Bill, to again provide cover for CINOs/PLINOs, and Pavlovian-Blue-Dogs Democrats (and maybe a few Republicans) to vote for it under Pro-Life grounds (and again, see #1), it will be stripped on a Saturday Late night, or reversed by language stuffed into the middle of some other Bill, otherwise removed undercover of the night, at a later date. Haven?t people learned anything?!?!? LIBERAL INCREMENTAL-ISM at its most obvious yet again!!!!
    4- HHS Sect. under these Bills has SOLE DISCRETION and job of putting forth the “minimal standards” qualification and can/will put Abortion funding back in by fiat. — I hear some say that would provide a conflict! Democrats DO NOT CARE and will invoke only those portions of Law that suits their moving their agenda forward and ignoring all else!
    5- Liberal Judge Activists — no more needs saying on that one!

    as a whole aside from the HC Bill, just about Abortion in general…
    Kathy Ireland/Abortion- Kathy Ireland/Abortion- Kathy Ireland: best anti-abortion comments ever made and more on her words here. Huckabee had a former Planned Parenthood worker explain how/why she quit after being involved in a Sonogram assisted Abortion and seeing the CHILD fight for its Life during the process!

    additionally:
    +ex post facto Court challenges to Obamaocare short-sighted – Thinking Obamaocare can be defeated in the Courts is a BAD short-sighted STRATEGY! must not be allowed to be signed AT ALL!
    +Mammography scandal – Mammography scandal – Obamaocare will kill women
    +Die In – Horowitz calls for Cancer Die In sessions from Female TEApeaters
    +Trigger scam – Public Option Trigger – will be attached to fully loaded gun
    +Stupak sham – how the Stupid (er.. Stupak) Amendment was all a sham vote and Forest for the Trees
    +Hyde – setup backdoor challenge to Hyde (Abortion funding restrictions)
    +Kathy Ireland/Abortion- Kathy Ireland: best anti-abortion comments ever made and more on her words here
    +Duplicity Votes – Setting up Duplicity Votes – the have it both way Game Politicians play to be able to say anything during Campaigns and 3 R’s give 3 weak D’s duplicity coverage voting FOR Omnibus spending and some Republicans keep providing Democrats CINO (pavlovian-blue-dog) cover
    +They lie/posture – They Lie (er.. I mean) Posture

  • richardcarlson

    Tom Stillings is the viable conservative candidate vs Stupak, visit http://www.stillingsforcongress.com and on Facebook add as a friend and share. www.facebook.com/pages/Tom-Stillings-for-Congress/359528951597?v=info