The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Shadegg to Vote "Present" on Stupak

Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

Shadegg to Vote "Present" on Stupak

By Philip Klein on 11.7.09 @ 8:19PM

As I wrote earlier, the Stupak amendment to prevent taxpayer funding for abortion poses a dilemma for pro-life Republicans, since supporting the pro-life amendment would help ensure that the Pelosi bill moves forward. While the Republican leadership in the House and many of the members have said they would support the measure, Rep. John Shadegg has told Politico that he will vote "present," and says at least 4 or 5 Republicans will join him:

“(Nancy) Pelosi is speaker and she’s pro abortion every minute of every hour of every day as speaker,” Shadegg said in an interview with POLITICO Saturday evening. “This is a vote to help her move the bill forward.”

He added: “This is a gut-wrenching issue for a lot of people...But I won't support Pelosi’s bill, which is not pro-life at all.”

The item also notes that Shadegg has "has been bickering all day via email with his Republican colleagues" about how to vote, and disagrees with the pro-life groups who have announced they would negatively rate a "present" vote on the measure.

So, will enough Republicans join Shadegg and help block passage of the Stupak amendment? And if that language doesn't make it in the bill, will Pelosi have enough votes to pass it? Right now, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor's office counts 35 Democrats opposed to the larger health care bill -- just five short of the number needed to defeat it, if the GOP caucus stands together. And that number doesn't include the pro-life Democratic members who are currently undecided, awaiting the outcome of the vote on the Stupak amendment.

View all comments (6) | Leave a comment

victor| 11.7.09 @ 8:49PM

Typical Liberal Chicanery.
Shadegg is, of course, right.
A "NO" vote will be used against him by his opponent to say that Shadegg voted against Pro life and a "YES" vote would mean that he voted to keep Abortion in the bill.
The whole point of this exercise is to keep the Bill from advancing and not playing Liberal Reindeer games.

Wesley| 11.7.09 @ 8:51PM

I think this might be a good strategic move. If the amendment fails, Pelosi might not have enough votes to pass it.

victor| 11.7.09 @ 11:24PM

You lose!
The bill just passed and is on its way to the Current Occupant's desk for his signature.
This is a day that will live in Infamy!

John| 11.7.09 @ 8:58PM

I wrestled with this too. And it's true that liberals have vowed to remove the ammendment anyway in conference. It is just to give the pro-life dems cover.

Still. I believe the pro-life Dems will vote for the bill anyway, now that they've been able to voice their opposition on the floor to cover themselves.

A house bill without federal funded abortion certainly won't gain it in the senate. It's a dangerous game. Like when we cheered that Obama did what we could not, defeat Hillary. The risk was that we would get stuck with even worse, and we did.

O. B. Ron Quixote| 11.7.09 @ 9:16PM

Bottom line is that regardless of whether the Stupak Amendment passes, it will be removed in committee. Pelosi's strategy is only to allow pro-life democrats a public forum to formally voice their opposition to that part of the overall health care bill.

That way, she gets all libs in line to pass the overall bill which will then be trumpeted by the "mainstream" media as a big victory for Obama/Pelosi.

By taking down the Stupak amendment, pro-life Republicans will force pro-life dems to vote against their values in order to pass the bill. By foiling the Pelosi-Stupak strategy, pro-life Republicans will be able to vote their true conscience by voting against the overall bill.

Pro-life groups who refuse to acknowledge Pelosi's overall strategy to get the overall bill passed at the expense of writing out the Stupak amendment in committee are simply naive.

Screw the Stupak amendment and oppose the overall bill at all costs.

If not, pro-lifers will only be shooting themselves in the foot.

JMHOAU