"Maximally Pro-Choice"

Following up on my previous post, there's a special group of people I want to highlight: There were 64 Democrats who voted for the Stupak coathanger amendment in November - well, there were 219 Democrats who voted for the Stupak amendment in November, but that was after it was already inserted into the bill. There were 64 Democrats who voted to insert that language into the bill. Of those 64, 37 went on to support the bill through all three votes in March. In other words, if these 37 Democrats had only found it within themselves to not explicitly make women second-class citizens, they wouldn't be on my list. They are:

Joe Baca CA-43, Sanford Bishop GA-02, John Boccieri OH-16, Dennis Cardoza CA-18, Christopher Carney PA-10, Jim Costa CA-20, Henry Cuellar TX-28, Kathy Dahlkemper PA-03, Michael Doyle PA-14, Steve Driehaus OH-01, Brad Ellsworth IN-08, Bob Etheridge NC-02, Bart Gordon TN-06, Baron Hill IN-09, Paul Kanjorski PA-11, Marcy Kaptur OH-09, Dale Kildee MI-05, Jim Langevin RI-02, Michael Michaud ME-02, Alan Mollohan WV-01, Richard Neal MA-02, Jim Oberstar MN-08, David Obey WI-07, Solomon Ortiz TX-27, Tom Perriello VA-05, Earl Pomeroy ND-AL, Nick Rahall WV-03, Silvestre Reyes TX-16, Ciro Rodriguez TX-23, Tim Ryan OH-17, John Salazar CO-03, Vic Snyder AR-02, John Spratt SC-05, Bart Stupak MI-01, Charlie Wilson OH-06

I understand a lot of people want to forgive and forget this vote, as I did for other votes against the bill in November, because these people voted for the bill in March. SEIU is running ads in six congressional districts to thank those Representatives for supporting health care, and four of the six voted for Stupak. Stupak himself, once he was bought off with the President agreeing to issue an Executive Order just for him, came up solid in speaking against the Republican motion to recommit, which was basically his original amendment from November. Tom Perriello seems to be a particular favorite around Left Blogistan: He's on the short list for OpenLeft's Better Democrats slate of endorsements, and on the We've Got Your Back ActBlue page created by DailyKos's Adam Bonin. Commenters compare him to Alan Grayson, who voted for the health care bill while wearing an American flag tie. (537:20 in this C-SPAN clip.)

On one blog where Tom Perriello was cited as an example of exactly the kind of swing-district Democrat people should be supporting, I commented stating my reluctance after his Stupak vote. Another commenter stated that "you can't expect Dems in red districts to take a maximally pro-choice position." So now allowing health insurance to cover an entirely legal medical procedure is a maximally pro-choice position? Bullshit. Voting no on Stupak is the very definition of minimally pro-choice. Maximally pro-choice would be making free, no-questions-asked abortions available at every post office. Maximally pro-choice would be legislating that no doctor could be licensed in any field unless they were also certified abortion providers and offered abortion services at their practices. Maximally pro-choice would be making the abortion pill available over-the-counter in vending machines and using government subsidies to keep the price down.

Simply not voting to make abortion unavailable to any woman who can't afford an additional rider, or any woman who is prevented from making her own insurance purchasing choices by her employer, controlling/abusive partner, parent, etc. is not anything like maximally pro-choice. It is incredibly minimally pro-choice, and Tom Perriello and these rest of these 37 so-called Democrats, and indeed all 64 D's who voted for the amendment, couldn't even scrape together the guts to stand up for that.

The obvious question is, why give folks like Dennis Kucinich and Betsy Markey a break for their votes against the bill in November and not give the same break to Tom Perriello and Earl Pomeroy? Well, Kucinich et al literally got a do-over; the house had to pass the health bill a second time, and they came out on the right side that time. The Stupakers got no such chance; because of their vote, we got the Nelson abortion language in the Senate bill, and that executive order, and they have done nothing to repair that damage.

If they all helped to pass a bill that, say, removed the Nelson language and repealed the Hyde Amendment banning federal funding of abortion services, then I would say fine, all is forgiven. But until something like that happens, good riddance. Either women are full and equal citizens of this country, or they are not, and this group emphatically voted 'Not.' Supposedly they did this because they can't survive in their districts while supporting equal rights for 52% of the population. Great, then this vote should have helped them, they don't need my help.

The HCR Shit List

This is a list of 74 members of the House of Representatives who will get no support from me in whatever race they're running this year thanks to their votes in the recent health care reform effort: (methodology after the list)

• John Adler NJ-03
• Jason Altmire PA-04
• Mike Arcuri NY-24
• Joe Baca CA-43
• John Barrow GA-12
• Marion Berry AR-01
• Sanford Bishop GA-02
• John Boccieri OH-16
• Dan Boren OK-02
• Rick Boucher VA-09
• Bobby Bright AL-02
• Dennis Cardoza CA-18
• Christopher Carney PA-10
• Ben Chandler KY-06
• Travis Childers MS-01
• Jim Cooper TN-05
• Jim Costa CA-20
• Jerry Costello IL-12
• Henry Cuellar TX-28
• Kathy Dahlkemper PA-03
• Artur Davis AL-07
• Lincoln Davis TN-04
• Joe Donnelly IN-02
• Michael Doyle PA-14
• Steve Driehaus OH-01
• Chet Edwards TX-17
• Brad Ellsworth IN-08
• Bob Etheridge NC-02
• Bart Gordon TN-06
• Stephanie Herseth Sandlin SD-AL
• Baron Hill IN-09
• Tim Holden PA-17
• Paul Kanjorski PA-11
• Marcy Kaptur OH-09
• Dale Kildee MI-05
• Larry Kissell NC-08
• Frank Kratovil MD-01
• Jim Langevin RI-02
• Dan Lipinski IL-03
• Stephen Lynch MA-09
• Jim Marshall GA-08
• Jim Matheson UT-02
• Mike McIntyre NC-07
• Mike McMahon NY-13
• Charlie Melancon LA-03
• Michael Michaud ME-02
• Walt Minnick ID-01
• Alan Mollohan WV-01
• Richard Neal MA-02
• Glenn Nye VA-02
• Jim Oberstar MN-08
• David Obey WI-07
• Solomon Ortiz TX-27
• Tom Perriello VA-05
• Collin Peterson MN-07
• Earl Pomeroy ND-AL
• Nick Rahall WV-03
• Silvestre Reyes TX-16
• Ciro Rodriguez TX-23
• Mike Ross AR-04
• Tim Ryan OH-17
• John Salazar CO-03
• Heath Shuler NC-11
• Ike Skelton MO-04
• Vic Snyder AR-02
• Zack Space OH-18
• John Spratt SC-05
• Bart Stupak MI-01
• John Tanner TN-08
• Gene Taylor MS-04
• Harry Teague NM-02
• Charlie Wilson OH-06

I put this together more for myself than anything else, to refer back to as we approach the election and I get more and more fundraising appeals. Anyone on this list will get a polite reply explaining exactly why I won't be supporting them this year. Some of these people I gave money to in 2008. Some of these people are running for Senate seats, or running for Governor of their state, rather than running for reelection in the House. The best outcome in every case would be for them to lose a primary to a real Democrat.

I don't buy blue dog excuses about "voting their districts" and how "at least they're better than a Republican." How are they better than a Republican? Being a Democrat is about more than just voting for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker. Health care reform was the Democrats' signature domestic issue of 2009-2010, and on that issue, these people were exactly as bad as Republicans. You either vote Aye or you vote Nay, and they stood athwart history and voted Nay. Good riddance.

There were seven total health care votes I looked at, four from November and three from March. They are:

• 2009 House Roll Call 884, Passage of the odious Stupak-Pitts coathanger amendment.
• 2009 House Roll Call 885, Passage of John Boehner's amendment to scrap the entire bill and replace it with a resolution in support of the color orange, or something.
• 2009 House Roll Call 886, Motion to Recommit and send the bill back to committee.
• 2009 House Roll Call 887, Final passage of the House health care bill.
• 2010 House Roll Call 165, Passage of the health care bill the Senate had passed last Christmas.
• 2010 House Roll Call 166, Motion to Recommit on the reconciliation bill of amendments to (somewhat) fix the Senate bill.
• 2010 House Roll Call 167, Passage of the reconciliation bill.

I did not look at the roll call vote of passage of the revised reconciliation bill after the Senate parliamentarian edited it down, as that passed rather perfunctorily and everyone who voted against it had also voted against the bill when it originally passed the House. Indeed, even out of these seven, I eliminated three from consideration: Roll Call 885 on a "substitute amendment" offered by Orange Julius, got zero Democratic votes. I decided to throw out the votes on passing the bill in November, 886 Motion to Recommit and 887 final passage, because anyone who voted against that bill got a second chance to do the right thing when the Senate bill was voted on in March. There are six people who benefit from this second chance: Brian Baird WA-03, Allen Boyd FL-02, Suzanne Kosmas FL-24, Dennis Kucinich OH-10, Betsy Markey CO-04, and Scott Murphy NY-20.

There are also three people who would be on this list if they were still House Democrats: Eric Massa NY-29 voted against the bill in November and has since resigned in disgrace. Parker Griffith AL-05 hit the trifecta of voting for Stupak, for the motion to recommit, and against passing the bill, and has since gone ahead and switched parties. Anyone else on this list is welcome to emulate one of these two. Jack Murtha PA-12 voted for Stupak, and sadly he passed away in early February.