Everything said here is why I really can’t be mad at Rep Joseph Cao. I have tried, but the more I think about it the harder it is for me to rationalize that anger.

This will turn out to be a pyrrhic victory for Nancy Pelosi, as she can’t pass a final bill with or without the Stupak Amendment.

We’ve been saying for months that the real health care fight will occur in the Senate, that Harry Reid is an incompetent babboon who will botch this, and that we are building momentum for what I believe will be a repudiation of this nonsense in 12 months.

So let’s brush off Saturday night’s vote, which I believe will galvanize the opposition to government health care rationing, We have to continue to politely but firmly tell our senators what will happen to them if they support this and educate everyone we know.

This is a fight to keep bureaucrats out of our doctors offices and a fight against new confiscatory taxes.

So we need to lay off Rep. Cao and put pressure on the Democrats. We have the fight of our lives on our hands, and we WILL win it.

“Because the Stupak Amendment passed, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and a host of power left-wing interest groups that supported Obamacare, now are joined with a bunch of groups on the right in opposition to the measure.”

Is it going too far to say they are in opposition to the entire bill if it includes Stupak? Obviously they wished it wasn’t there, but they must be thinking that it will get watered down in conference - Waxman admitted as much.

That will be the point where we find out whether a new acronym is needed - PLINO - for House Dems who claim to be pro-life but would vote for a HCR bill with something less that Stupak in it.

Perhaps I’m just depressed and disappointed following the passage of the House bill, but why is the conventional wisdom “oh, the real battle is in the Senate?” We kept hearing “oh, Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have enough votes,” yet here we are with her bill passed.

I will be calling Evan Bayh’s office — any hope that he might be a sensible Democrat?

You make the statement that “Whether Stupak passed or not, the health care legislation would have passed on Saturday,” but do you really have any basis for saying that?

I haven’t heard any kind of evidence to back this up.

on Saturday. Hey it was going to happen so why not just get it over with so we could find out who exactly would vote for it. Let’s find out which Blue Dogs are being given cover. We all know once this bill goes to conference the Stupak Amendment will be contorted or removed so there will be public funding for abortion. Then these Blue Dogs cover will be removed and they will be exposed. Hopefully, they will live up to their promises. Either decision they make, they will be targets. It’s a lose lose situation for them.

Tn has 2 Blue Dogs who voted no (Bart Gordon and Lincoln Davis) and my parents Rep (Colin Peterson) in MN voted no. All three of these Blue Dogs play the game and their true roots will be on display. I hope they remember from whence they come.

Both Bart and Lincoln have strong conservatives running contested primaries and I hope for once, conservatives in Tn get out and vote in the primary to beat down the Democrats who cross the aisle to vote for the worst candidate in the Republican primary. The Tea Party groups are going to need to rally the vote and wake people up to get to the primary to vote.

Let me get this straight. If I don’t get health insurance, I will go to jail for 10 years. A jail where by law I mustg be provided healthcare at taxpayer cost, right?

I was watching the floor vote live, and it was not until after the cheers from the Democrats had died down upon hitting 218 had Cao cast a vote for the bill. He represents one of the most liberal districts in the country. I could only imagine the flack he catches from his constituents. Having conservatives in far leftwing districts is a precipe for one-term wonders. As with the Stupak Amendment, the only thing scarier than this house bill passing is its passing without the Studpak amendment. They were going to pass it one way or another with just Democrats, anyways.

Erickson wrote: “I think the Stupak Amendment was an instance of the pro-life community not seeing the forest for the trees and it should have been opposed. But I am willing to admit I could be wrong.”

I am inclined to agree. Though I am pro-life, I do not want to do anything to help this president and his allies in Congress further this horrible agenda.

Contrary to what the MSM is reporting that those so called Blue Dogs that voted for PelosiCare are the most vulnerable, I think the GOP needs to focus on the ones who voted “No”. These are clearly the most vulnerable seats or Pelosi would not have agreed to let them have the political cover necessary by allowing them to vote against. Once they knew they had the necessary votes, I am sure it was determined who was most vulnerable and they were issued hall passes. The GOP needs to take these seats back.

If we let them go back to their districts and take credit for voting against an unpopular measure that THEIR party passed anyway then we have noone to blame but our selves.

As a surface issue abortion has been tossed around by the MSM and the politicians for years. Truth is, outside fringe groups on both sides, nobody cares. To hang your hat on that issue killing the biggest power and money grab by the left in generations is bit like whistling in the dark.

The one thing the left has demonstrated is their willingness to take one for the team. So what if they lose a dozen or more from their ranks in 2010, they’ll be able to return them to power in a few years when the healthcare bill begins to impact our country. Their hope is to become something similar to Britain’s system where the healthcare voting bloc is the 800lb gorilla which decides who goes and who stays in power. Set up correctly, the dems will be able to run this nation for fifty years. (Remember they ran the House for forty before and want that back.)

I’ve been watching this “Oh, the Blue Dogs will step up” argument for a year now, and frankly I haven’t seen it working out so good. Let’s be honest, principle is NOT one of the strong points in a democrat’s character. It just isn’t anymore. Had it been, they would have long ago threw people like Clinton, Reid, Dodd, Pelosi, Frank (who doesn’t know what weed looks like? From the sixties and doesn’t know weed when he sees it? Really?) under the bus a long time ago.

This is for all the marbles in politics for the next fifty or sixty years or longer if this country survives. You are talking about controlling people’s lives at the level where the elite political class can decide literally whether or not the people below them live or die! What more “power” could any narcissistic, power hungry, elitist want?

No, if abortion was really the main issue here, the democrats would have fallen apart a long time ago before the House passed the bill. This is about power and riches. And to expect those who would rule to pass on that opportunity on principle alone is a mistake.

I’m hoping for the best, but fear the worst.

For a short time, there was a blog on the FP that was encouraging people to call their Representative telling them to vote against the Stupak Amendment because it would be stripped out in committee. It had the red flashing light these types usually have. Shortly after I read it, it was taken down.

Particularly Bluedogs like supposed “deficit Hawk” Tennessee’s Jim Coope. WSJ money quote: “Mr. Cooper has with a single vote made his entire career irrelevant.”

appreciated. It was hard to watch Saturday as the House took steps to make changes to our system that have much more impact than health care.

I sat in front of the TV thinking that the Reps were very naive to think that voting for the Stupak would be of benefit, but your observations have made me rethink that and hope that there is a greater good in that vote.

Surely to goodnes this monstrosity won’t go through the Senate and be passed. I live in fear that it will. The ramifications of it are so widespread and affect us in ways yet to be determined, but for now we must continue to focus on STOPPING THIS BILL BEFORE IT GETS SIGNED INTO LAW IN ANY FORM AND WORKING TO DEFEAT BLUE DOGS ACROSS THE NATION WHETHER THEY VOTED YES OR NO.

We live close to Jim Cooper’sand Bart Gordon’s district. Our Congresswoman is Marsha Blackburn, so we have an advocate in the congress, but my husband and I are going to be working this year on defeating Jim Cooper and Bart Gordon.

that it wouldn’t have passed if the Rs opposed Stupak? If the majority of the pro-life movement voted against Stupak in order to kill the bill, the Dems who it mattered to would see that they couldn’t get the abortion prohibition through, and would have voted to pass it as is.

This would have created a bigger division with the Rs because this was their only real chance to make an impact on the content of the final bill. Rs who voted against the pro-life amendment when the bill passed (as everyone here pretty much concedes would have happened) would have some major answering to do to their constituents. As it is, only the Ds are facing hard questions now.

That’s why the right thing to do was vote for Stupak.

Cao is a Republican in a strongly Democrat precinct. He’s merely representing his constiuents. If this is truly what they want — to give up some of their freedom in favor of being taken care of by Uncle Sam — then he is properly representing their wishes.

I’m beginning to see how meaningless 2010 is becoming to these two parties.

To the Democrats, they couldn’t care less about 2010. We all know that they want long-term power. 2010 is a blip, and, therefore, a loss is a worthy price to pay, in their eyes.

To the GOP, 2010 may be end up being the most meaningless landslide in history. Numbers-wise, they could make bank across the country and be swept back into power. But what will it mean? Nothing. In reality they will have no power, and that is the whole point of passing this bill. Also, throw in the fact that Obama will finally have a big mean enemy to blame for everything (he’s been searching for it in Rush, Fox, Tea Parties, etc.), and you’ve got a powerless majority.

Donna Brazil was complaining on This Week that this amendment now bans abortion funding in private plans in the insurance collective they are setting up setting up the delicious irony that the Democrats are now the victims of their own one size fits all state-ism.

They are forcing men to pay for breast exams and women to pay for prostate exams since they tell insurance companies what plans they have to offer and taking away our right to shop options…and now…with Stupak…they end up hoisted on their own petard since the legislation bans all plans that currently offer abortion services…

I’m depressed beyond all measure that Pelosi and company shredded the last vestiges of constitutional government and the idea that there are any constraints what so ever over what the central government in Washington can do to individuals in Texas or any other state…but Stupak is a silver lining

The “Big Tent” analogy isn’t the correct one…the correct one is a MAGNET…we need to be a MAGNET that draws these independents in who are sick and tired of what’s going on in Washington—Fred Thompson

Senate Conservatives Fund House Conservatives Fund Michael Williams for Senate

Marco 2010 Toomey US Senate SarahPAC

I do agree with Senator Graham that in its current form the health care legislation will not make it to conference so the goal for Senator Reid is to get it there. But, any compromises made in the Senate have no guarantees.

I was interested in the question the House Minority Leader Boehner asked Representative George Miller (D-CA), Chairman of the House Health and Labor Committee. Paraphrasing, Mr. Boehner asked if Mr. Miller could guarantee that the Stupak Admendment would survive the conference and of course he could not provide a guarantee. Indeed, the bill leaving the Senate will have many ‘adjustments’ to get 60 votes, but in conference there are no guarantees. So, it is here where the crucible is located and it is here where affordable, deficit/debt proof, public/private health care may or may not be forged.

I wouldn’t get my shorts all twisted over the Senate debate as the real work will be in conference.

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

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.

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!!!!

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 Sonigram assisted Abortion and seeing the CHILD fight for its Life during the process!

Two strong messages I took from the recent passage. 1) We must be united in opposition to this or any democrat legislation. 2) The founding principles of our nation are what we must be fighting for. The democrats will be defeated if we show them for what they are: liars and tyrants who are betraying our people into submission and our nation into mediocrity.

Doubt it. Obviously nothing is below contempt for this Congress. Given these pro-abortion groups help fill election coffers, my bet is there will be an offset that is equally offensive to anti-abortion groups.

Look for something stuffed and hidden into completely unrelated legislation on parental consent or providing abortion “counselling”. Guaranteed.

In the up coming election go to the poles and vote every incumbent out or sit
down in a corner put your head between your legs and kiss your ass good bye!!!
Fred,
Nashville, N.c.