Political Catfight

I must admit I've actually had a change of heart on the infamous Stupak amendment. Don't get me wrong, it's still a shortsighted political blunder by pro-lifers who should really know better than to believe that this amendments will mean anything in the end.

But oh man, how sweet is it to see lib on lib crime?

People with any common sense have always known that the Democratic Party is the Party of Tolerance in about the same way Islam is a Religion of Peace and that's through rumor only. Like radical Islamists, liberals are really only tolerant of people who are exactly like them. This hypocrisy is usually exposed when they turn on conservatives who no longer cross the aisle or the rouge free thinking Democrat. Think of poor Joe Liebermann who was drummed out of the party for daring to be pro war, Olympia Snowe who was cast aside because she favored a socialist trigger instead of direct socialism. No tolerance for them. The saddest example is John McCain who loved nothing more than leftist adoration and thought he could ride it all the way to the White House. Shocked he must have been to be attacked as a Bush-esque candidate.

This time it's different though. The radical leftist, pro-deathers have got their sights set solely on the merely liberal in their party. 41 Democrats, led by Colorado's own Diana DeGette, have written a letter flatly refusing to give the final ok to a bill that restricts abortions in any way. Read the letter here. They sound pretty serious to me. Now we know from Saturday's vote that there are enough Reps on the other side who will not vote for the healthcare package without the Stupak language. It wouldn't have been there in the first place if that wasn't true, so how does this play out?

Depends on how serious everybody is. Liberals by and large have no spine or principals on anything but this might be the one topic liberals are ready to go to the mattresses for. Consider; Speaker Pelosi has essentially ran the House with an iron hand. She managed to get the Cap and Trade bill passed which is amazing considering that it is an economy destroyer and we happen to be in the middle of a recession. Nobody in the Dem caucus outside of Jane Harmon has ever so much as publicly defied Speaker Pelosi and now we have to groups (Blue Dogs and Feminists) openly defying her to the point of issuing mandates.

The big trick though is that no matter who wins in the Dem party, Conservatives win overall. If both sides are serious, then it results in a stalemate killing any kind of reform that liberals want. This would infuriate the left wing base, they would attack their own and the blue wave of 2006 and 2008 would reverse itself. If the Blue Dogs win, feminists will go ballistic. They will also attack moderates in their own party, raise funds against them, etc. all to the benefit of the GOP. If pro-choicers win, it will cement the party as being solely the domain of the ideological far left. This won't make much difference in New England or the Pacific coast but moderate Democrats in the South and Sun Belt, who have more in common with conservatives already, will have to consider jumping ship or at least disengaging themselves from the Dems. Either way the GOP wins, one less Dem vote is the same as one more GOP vote.

The only way the libs can save this is if they hammer out some kind of bribe behind closed doors and have some kind of burying the hatchet, "we are family" type of mass press conference prior to passing legislation.

However, it seems neither side is interested in burying the hatchet unless it's to take out the other side completely, politically speaking of course.

Stupak may just turn out to be a great thing after all.