Jim Antle has a terrific piece in the American Spectator this morning illustrating the schizoid voting patterns of supposedly pro-life Democrats ? a term which, after the vote last night, has effectively become an oxymoron (emphasis on moron).
Even before the health care vote, these Dems had disparate voting patterns on abortion, sometimes changing from year to year. It’s obvious they’re playing politics.
Antle concludes:
What made the Stupak Dozen a swing vote was the fact that they were not only pro-life Democrats, but mostly pro-life liberals. But that is precisely what made depending on them so risky — most of them, including Stupak himself, did not oppose the health care bill in principle. They had all been willing to back the public option when it was voted on in the House. Hailing from union-heavy, fundamentally Democratic districts, they were all going to have a hard time voting against a vision of health care reform with which they substantially agreed.
Consequently, the pro-life Democrats who voted against the health care bill in the largest numbers were those who are to the right of their party on a broad spectrum of issues. Fox interviewed a stricken Rep. Gene Taylor (D-MS) as Stupak got ready to announce his deal with the president. “I told Bart what the president can do he can also undo,” Taylor, a no vote, said quietly. But Democrats like Taylor would have voted against the health care bill even with the Stupak language, as they also opposed it on other grounds.
Now the Stupak Democrats will have to go home to their pro-life constituents and try to persuade them they are not pro-choice, but just cheap dates. Perhaps those pro-life constituents might not be so easily wooed.
The Stupak Dems might have claimed to uphold one plank of Locke’s “life, liberty, and property” ethic, but they ignored the other two. That was telling.
