What a Shame: Stupak Retiring

Aw, c'mon Bart, man up and take your beating come November. Well, if you're going to run off like a coward, mayb eyou can convince a couple hundred of your lowlife Democrat pals to join you in retirement.

Michigan Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak will not seek reelection this fall, a decision that comes hard on his front-and-center (and controversial) role in the recent passage of President Barack Obama's health-care legislation.

Stupak is expected to formalize it at a press conference at 12:30 pm in Marquette, Mich.

Sources familiar with Stupak's thinking describe him as exhausted and burned out from the long fight over health care in which he emerged as the leading voice of pro-life Democrats wary about the possibility that the legislation would allow federal funds to be spent on abortions.

Stupak eventually voted for the final bill after Obama signed an executive order re-affirming the idea that no funds from the legislation would go toward abortions. In the wake of that vote he was treated as a hero within the Democratic caucus, but the reaction toward him from activists on the right and left was significantly more vitriolic. Former Charlevoix County Commissioner Connie Saltonstall has announced she will take on Stupak in the state's Aug. 3 primary.

Stupak's seat, which takes in much of northern Michigan's Upper Peninsula, will be a major takeover target for Republicans. Obama carried it with 50 percent in 2008, but George W. Bush won the district in 2000 and 2004.

Hmmm: Stupak to Retire?

Facing public outrage for selling his soul for ObamaCare, is Michigan's Bart Stupak planning to retire?

With just a few days to go before the end of this recess, House Democrats are cautiously optimistic that they could get through it without a single retirement announcement. That said, there is still a concern that some important incumbents in districts that they are uniquely suited could call it quits. At the top of the concern list this week: Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak. The Democrat best known this year as the Democrat who delivered the winning margin of votes for the president's health-care reform bill is said to be simply exhausted. The criticism he received -- first from the left, and then from the right -- has worn him and his family out. And if he had to make the decision now, he'd probably NOT run.

Aww, the poor thing is worn out. Well, he could have made life easaier if he stuck with his alleged principles. Before he goes, he should see to it that het gets a few more payoffs for his district if he plans on still living there.

Meanwhile, the tea part express is rolling through Michigan this week reminding the voters of Stupak's perfidy.

Stupak Crew Looking for Their Payoff

Well, well, well, look what we've got here. The Democrats who switched to yes votes on ObamaCare now have billions in earmark requests being considered.

The 11 House Democrats led by Rep. Bart Stupak who dropped their opposition to health care reform legislation mere hours before the final vote have requested $3.4 billion in earmarks -- and one watchdog group wants to know whether the money represents business as usual or political payoffs.

The Sunlight Foundation says it plans to track the earmark requests, which were put in one day after health care reform cleared Congress, to see whether they're approved and whether it appears lawmakers are being rewarded for their vote.

"We know that in Congress one of the ways that leadership tries to influence members is through earmarks," said Bill Allison, editorial director at the nonpartisan organization. "So this seemed to us something good to follow.

Stupak and the ten other Democrats were critical to the success of the health care bill. They were holding out over concerns about funding for abortion coverage but announced the president had assuaged their worries -- with an executive order restricting abortion funding -- the morning of the big vote.

Stupak's office said there's absolutely no link between the earmarks and the health care bill's passage.

Right. Just as there is no link between my eating habits and my being 25 pounds overweight.

"Pay to play" has long been a staple of Chicago politics and now is being taken to a new art level in Washington by the socialists. They are so open and brazen about their payoffs it's stunning. They flaunt it and then tell you that you are not seeing what you are seeing.

Stay tuned. Based on my life long experience with the Chicago Machine politics, this is just the beginning. It's like Goodfellas went to Washington. They see what they want and they just take it.

And they treat the rest of us like a schnook.

The Rolling of Stupak, Continued

He may as well just change his name to Bart Stooooopak. Man, is this guy dense.

President Obama signed the Senate health care bill into law Tuesday. He did not sign the executive order on abortion negotiated with Michigan Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak in an 11th-hour arrangement that may well have saved the entire health care reform effort.

A White House official told Fox, Obama will not sign the Executive Order Tuesday and has set no specific date to do so. Stupak predicted Obama would sign the order later this week. The White House said only that Obama would sign the order "soon."

In two celebratory speeches Tuesday - one at the bill's signing, the other at the Interior Department with health care advocates - Obama said nothing about the abortion issue or the executive order.

Stupak, meanwhile, is under fire for accepting the order as his price for supporting the health care overhaul legislation, which passed on a vote of 219-212.

Stupak released a statement today defending the as-yet-unsigned executive order, placing it on a list of other significant orders that included Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and Harry Truman's 1948 order desegregating the U.S. armed forces.

"Throughout history, Executive Orders have been an important means of implementing public policy," Stupak said in a statement. "The most famous Executive Order was the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Lincoln in 1863."

And the most famous one that will wind up in the trash is the one you got snookered for, chump.

Not only is Stupak looking like a complete idiot, he's now defending Planned Parenthood?

Stupak Leaving an Opening?

Everyone has a price, it seems.

George Stephanopoulos basically gets on his knees and begs him to vote yes. So nice for the Democrats to have one of their operatives posing as a newsman.

They Lie! Abortion Funding Still in Democrat Plans

Recall a wave of manufactured outrage when Republican Congressman Joe Wilson reminded Barack Obama he was lying through his teeth about ObamaCare not funding abortion. Democrats and their handmaidens in the media all reacted with horror at the accusation and moved on to more important issues, like destorying Rush Limbaugh and declaring war on Fox News.

But the dirty little secret is they still plan to fund abortions in defiance of the Hyde amendment and this is now causing headaches within the Democratic Party.

So if ObamaCare doesn't fund abortion, why are Democrats fighting over it?

House Democrats are at an impasse over whether their remake of the nation's health care system would effectively allow federal funding of abortion.

At least two dozen anti-abortion Democrats believe it would, and while their opposition is unlikely to stall the legislation in the end, they are at odds with Democratic leaders just weeks ahead of anticipated floor action on the bill.

Lawmakers on the other side say they've compromised as far as they can to address the anti-abortion lawmakers' concerns by specifying that people receiving government subsidies to buy health insurance couldn't use that money for abortions.

Negotiations to find common ground have not yielded fruit.

"We have a difference of opinion at the moment we cannot bridge," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where the abortion language was approved. "We have done everything we can to ensure that there will be no federal funds for abortion services."

Waxman said he's still working on the issue with Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., the leader of the anti-abortion group. On Thursday the two had an earnest discussion on the House floor but afterward they said nothing had really changed.

Stupak, who's on the tall side, made a joking reference to Waxman's diminutive stature when asked whether their conversation had yielded a meeting of minds. "I'm a little taller. Our minds don't meet," Stupak said.

The main point of contention is the proposed new federal subsidies that would help lower-income people purchase health care coverage from private plans — and potentially from a new government-sponsored plan — within a new purchasing exchange.

Currently a law called the Hyde amendment bars federal funding for abortion — except in cases of rape and incest or if the mother's life would be endangered — and applies those restrictions to Medicaid, forcing states that cover abortion for low-income women to do so with their own money. Separate laws apply the restrictions to the federal employee health plan and military and other programs.

But the Democrats' health overhaul bill would create a new stream of federal funding not covered by the restrictions.

Stupak says language specifying that someone obtaining an abortion must use her own money, not federal money from the subsidies, doesn't go far enough because it's impossible to clearly segregate funds in that way.

"Once you get the affordability credits (subsidies) in there, that's public funding of abortion. We're not going there," Stupak said. "How do you get past the affordability credits is really the issue. And we can't."

Naturally, this isn't sitting well with Big Abortion.

NARAL recently sent a letter to supporters singling out Stupak for criticism and asking them to call their members of Congress to make sure he doesn't prevail.

On the other side, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said it can't support a health overhaul bill unless the anti-abortion language is strengthened.

Unless an eleventh-hour agreement is reached, Stupak intends to carry through on a threat he's been holding over House leaders for months: to block action on the larger health overhaul bill unless he's allowed to offer a stand-alone amendment during floor debate to include the Hyde amendment restrictions in the health overhaul bill.

Funny how we don't see any of the Obama-approved media talking about the civil war over abortion in the Democratic Party. Just imagine the derision from the left if this was happening in the GOP. We'd be hearing nonstop stories of how social conservatives were tearing the party apart.

Instead, that sound we hear from the Obamamedia is silence.

Update: Well, that's a face palm for me. Suffering apparent short-term memory loss, I forgot Wilson told Obama he lied about illegal aliens being covered under ObamaCare, not abortion. It's getting tough keeping track of all their lies.

Oil Futures

Inventories are up.

Demand is down.



On Thursday, June 5, 2008, Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Michigan) was interviewed by KNX 1070 Business Editor Frank Mottek regarding the runup of oil and gas prices.

Interestingly, Stupak didn't go into his usual Bush Derangement Syndrome mode. That should be news in and of itself. :-)