Don't be "Stupaked" this November

[Elizabeth]

Voters who are considering supporting moderates in the GOP and the
Democratic Party this upcoming election cycle might want to ask
themselves, do they want to be "Stupaked"? From coast to coast and
from Mike to Mike, meaning Mike Castle (R-DE) and Mike Bennet (D-CO),
both of these Mikes are congressional incumbents running on the
moderate, middle of the road platform. These folks and all other
moderates need to be studied and questioned now more than ever.
Remember the Health Care debate earlier this year. This is when Cong.
Bart Stupak (D-MI) bamboozled all of his supporters who believed he
would protect the right to life during the House debate on the bill.
Cong. Stupak (D-MI) had been saying since he was elected to Congress
in 1993 that he is committed to protecting life by making sure
government funds never went to pay for abortions. Cong. Stupak is
actually the co-chair of the caucus within the House of
Representatives that affirms to promote a pro-life agenda in
Congress. That didn't work out so well earlier this year when Cong.
Stupak held the fate of health care reform bill in his hands. Now we
have a Federal Health Care law that is minus abortion language
restricting federal funds. This is entirely thanks to the leadership
of Cong. Stupak, since he led and supplied the health care bill's
winning margin in the House of Representatives.
Congressional leaders have much power to wield when they need to round
up votes for passing legislation. The "goodies" range from the
obvious, trading a vote for support for other initiatives, to plum
committee assignments and leadership posts. However, when members of
Congress make these deals, they never include, as part of the deal,
any repayment to their good constituents. They are the ones that
devote their time, talents and put their trust in electing the member
of Congress only to be disappointed when deals are cut to make the
member of Congress go back on his campaign commitments. This Bart
“Bamboozle” was especially heinous because he had been a pro-life
leader for over 20 years.
While the remembrance of this may be grievous for many of us, the
burden of this is intolerable for pro-life supporters. Be careful, be
diligent, be knowledgeable and don’t get "Stupaked" by so-called, self
proclaimed moderates this November. Stay tuned to see if we remember
and apply this old adage come Election Day. It goes like this: “Fool
me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”

Elizabeth B. Letchworth is a retired, four-times-elected United States
Senate Secretary for the Majority and Minority. She is the founder of
GradeGov.com.

[George]

This change in Stupak's position seems to be so large that I would
like to know if any money changed hands directly (not likely) or
indirectly (such as contributions, promises of a future high paying
job, or other item of value.) or if he was just shallow to begin with.
The problem is that it is hard to tell until after they get into
office. We need to make it easier to get rid of Representatives who
don't do what they promised during the campaign. We as a country have
accepted lying on the campaign trail as just part of Politics for way
too long. It’s time to put our Representatives in their place. This
year needs to be the first of many elections to do so.