Now that Bart Stupak has cut his last second deal on abortion and healthcare with The White House can we have a frank discussion?
C'mon pro-lifers admit it. All along in the back of your mind you really thought Bart Stupak would cave to the pressure right? You wanted to believe that Stupak wouldn't cave. You wanted to believe that Stupak and his Democratic pro-life buddies would save the day. But you had your doubts. And now your doubts have been justified. So while some think Bart Stupak is the toast of the town my guess is pro-lifers would actually prefer to throw a piece of toast at him instead.
Look, the way Bart Stupak sees it he is a hero. He thinks that he has preserved the ban on federal funding of abortion and thinks his vote will bring hope to the 30 million people or so that supposedly will be insured under the House bill.
Let me offer an observation. This is a good example of the difference between a pro-life Democrat and a pro-life Republican. You see Stupak wasn't JUST pro-life. He's a pro-lifer who LIKES THIS HEALTHCARE BILL. In other words, he really wanted to support it all along. When you want to support a bill you will find a way to justify a deal.
Some will call Stupak a big tease. Others will call him a sell out or just plain weak for bowing to the pressure put on him from Democratic leadership. Maybe others will just think he's plain dumb for believing that an Executive Order will make everything perfect. But I think all of that name calling misses the point.
Here's the point:
Let's stop pretending that Bart Stupak is some sort of CONSERVATIVE pro-lifer. He's not. He's a Democrat who is OK with this LIBERAL healthcare bill. So therefore his mindset is not to try to kill this bill. He's working overtime to save it, thus he's willing to discuss ALL alternatives when it comes to his principled conviction on abortion. If you think about it, maybe pro-lifers shouldn’t have bought into the hope to begin with. Either way, they are left with a very empty feeling.