Senior House Democrat leadership aides say that House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi and majority leader Steny
Hoyer were not concerned about the potential backlash
from left-wing women groups, such as the National Organization
for Women and pro-abortionists like Planned Parenthood, for their
allowing the so-called Stupak amendment, which would have limited
the use of federal health care funding for abortion.
"Fine. Let [the groups] be mad, where are they going to go? The
Republicans?" said one aide. "They can be mad all they want, but
it's not like they have anywhere else to go. You hate to say it,
but we take them for granted because they've allowed themselves
to be taken for granted. The Speaker was very confident that at
the end of the day, those groups are going to be standing with us
when the next big issue comes along. We'll make it up to them and
they'll get over this pretty quick."
