You have to give credit to Pelosi for holding her party together to vote on a bill that will likely mean the defeat of many of her party next year (and she knows it). And she did it by holding on to liberals and conservatives. She even did it at the expense of her on principles on abortion:
It was late Friday night and lawmakers were stalling for time. In a committee room, they yammered away, delaying a procedural vote on the historic health care legislation. Down one floor, in her office, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi desperately tried to deal with an issue that has bedeviled Democrats for more than a generation -- abortion.I suspect the reason the pro-abort lefties didn't abandon the bill is that she promised them the amendment wouldn't survive the conference committee. Let see if the pro-life Blue Dog Democrats will stand as strong if the final bill doesn't contain the abortion funding restrictions. I hope they do for the sake of the unborn.After hours of heated talks, the people she was trying to convince -- some of her closest allies -- burst angrily out of her office.
Her attempts at winning them over had failed, and Ms. Pelosi, the first woman speaker and an ardent defender of abortion rights, had no choice but to do the unthinkable. To save the health care bill she had to give in to abortion opponents in her party and allow them to propose tight restrictions barring any insurance plan that is purchased with government subsidies from covering abortions.
BTW, creds also to the pro-life Democrats who stayed strong and refused to vote unless they could offer an amendment that stopped the federal government from funding abortions. Pretty courageous of them standing up to Pelosi.
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
still the dumbest blog on beliefnet.
I'm very pleased that Health Care reform has passed the House. While I'm not a Pelosi fan, this is a big victory for her and she delivered. Unlike Harry Reid, who is making noises about delaying the vote in the Senate until 2010.
This is a very important achievement, which I support. It is too bad that the Republican Party (of which I am currently a member) elected to simply oppose the bills going through the House and Senate, rather than actually contributing to making a better bill. When the Republican leaders say that they have their own alternative bill, my response is, what did you do about reforming health care when you controlled both Houses of Congress and the Presidency? Nada, zip, zilch. Lost all credibility with me on this issue, folks.
Evil does not stop at the word no.
Pelosi is fueled by a legion of powers and principalities.
Hopefully we can rise up and vote her madness.
That should have been written:
Hopefully we can rise up and vote OUT her madness!
alicia, not only that (what did they do when they were in control), but where were they during the talks on this bill? rather than work on a bipartisan bill, they wanted dems to do this alone, so they can claim that it's strictly a "liberal" bill with no republican support. party before country, as always. one of the major things that has pushed me away from that party.
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.