Bart Stupak

Former Democratic congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper, a Catholic from Erie, Pennsylvania, cast a crucial vote in favor of Obamacare in 2010. She lost her seat that November in part because of her controversial support of Obamacare.

National Democrats have given up on Ohio Representative Steve Driehaus's reelection campaign, but the race took an interesting turn today when the Ohio Elections Commission agreed to allow Driehaus's case against a pro-life group, the Susan B. Anthony List, to proceed. 

Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee explains that the Pennsylvania high-risk insurance pool--funded entirely by the federal government--will provide coverage for elective abortions:

Rep. Brown-Waite is citing health problems as she becomes the 20th Republican to announce retirement this year, on filing day in Florida.

From the Washington Post:

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 confirmed his decision to the Associated Press and is expected to formalize it as a press conference at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time in Marquette, Mich.

The Hill reports:

Lawmakers living at the C Street House are violating congressional gift rules, a watchdog charged Thursday.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint Thursday with the Senate Ethics Committee and the House Office of Congressional Ethics, charging members residing at C Street with paying below-market rent.

The complaint lists Sens. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) as well as Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), Heath Shuler (D-N.C.), Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.) as allegedly receiving improper housing benefits.

There's nothing Obamacare opponents would love more than to beat Bart Stupak after he agreed in the 11th hour to deliver the crucial votes for a health care bill that didn't include his amendment to prevent taxpayer-funding of abortion. Dan Benishek, a general surgeon for 27 years in Northern Michigan, hopes to be the one to do the deed. A newcomer to politics, Benishek didn't even have a website set up when Stupak announced he would vote for the health care bill. Since then Benishek has quickly capitalized on what many believe to be Stupak's betrayal and is well on his way to raising $219,000 online at www.dropstupak.com.

Money will help, but Benishek certainly has his work cut out for him. Obama narrowly won the district 50% to 48% in 2008, but Stupak cruised to reelection in 2008 by 22 points (65% to 33%). He survived his first reelection campaign back in the 1994 Republican Revolution by taking 57% of the vote--even after he voted for the unpopular Clinton budget.

CBS reports:

The calls placed to Stupak's office reveal the extreme anger members of Congress are facing.

"Congressman Stupak, you baby-killing mother f***er... I hope you bleed out your a**, got cancer and die, you mother f***er," one man says in a message to Stupak.

From the American Principles Project:

When Bart Stupak announced his support for the Senate Health Care Reform Bill, one reporter asked him if the deal between Barack Obama and the pro-life Democrats was made face-to-face with the President himself. Mr. Stupak said that he had made the deal working with White House Counsel Robert Bauer.

Who is this Robert Bauer - the man capable of selling Bart Stupak a bill of goods on the Executive Order?

Prior to his involvement with Mr. Obama, from 2005-2007 Mr. Bauer was a registered lobbyist for America Votes.  In this capacity, he sought to enact laws that would help the fund-raising prospects of left-leaning 527s.  After he finished the campaign of Mr. Obama, he served as the Counsel for the pro-choice election powerhouse EMILY's List.

America Votes (AV) is a coalition of liberal groups that has, according to their website "more than 20,000,000 Americans in every state in the country." AV is controlled by an Executive Board that consists of 9 members: 5 unions (AFL-CIO, AFSCME, NEA, SEIU, and UFCW), 2 global warming advocacy groups (The Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters), 1 general liberal advocacy network (Progressive Future), and, most importantly, the most influential pro-choice lobby - The Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

Of course, this doesn't prove that Stupak's deal is meaningless--we have to rely on logic and the law to prove that. But it is fitting that Stupak sold out for a deal with a lawyer who has worked for the abortion lobby. As Planned Parenthood's president said, the executive order is nothing more than a "symbolic gesture."

Everyone, and I mean everyone, agrees that the executive order on abortion Bart Stupak got President Obama to sign is a sham--a fig leaf not worth the paper it's printed on.

So why did Stupak sell out his pro-life principles?

John McCormack writes that Rep. Bart Stupak's inexplicable an unprincipled late cave-in on taxpayer-funded abortion -- so senseless and bizarre after he held out so nobly for so long -- represents "an odd moment of agreement in a debate over health care that's been filled with factual disputes," as all sides agree that Stupak's late deal with President Obama for an executive order does nothing to change the legislation and will be essentially useless in practice.  But that's not the only point of agreement about the outcome of the vote.  In eschewing the normal legislative process of collaboration and compromise -- not to mention the notion of incremental change -- and instead insisting on a one-party comprehensive bill and a rush to the finish line at all costs, President Obama has managed to craft a bill that essentially no one likes.

Bart Stupak said at his press conference this afternoon that an executive order signed by President Obama will accomplish what his amendment would have accomplished:

"All the safeguards we were looking for, the principle we fought for all these months, will be enforced through this exeuctive order. ... It's a good agreement."

Stupak said on Fox News this afternoon that the executive order will have "the full force and effect of law."

The problem with Stupak's statements is that they're not true--and no one on the right or the left believes them to be true, except for Bart Stupak and a few of his friends.