Bart Stupak is a loser and a liar. Diane DeGette has said that he's FULL OF SHIT about his supposed 12 "yes" votes to switch to "no" (I've heard it's 6 at most). Check out Rachel Maddow spanking him HARD last night:
My hero, Tom Harkin, said this:
Mr. Stupak sadly is misinformed.
Here's Dianne DeGette, chair of the Pro Choice Caucus:
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), the co-chairwoman of the abortion-rights-supporting caucus, predicted that abortion would not prove to be a sticking point among Democrats that brings down health reform efforts.
"I don't think Congressman Stupak has the votes to kill healthcare legislation over his language not being in there," DeGette told The Hill.
"He says he has 10 or 11 people who will vote no, but a lot of those people voted no the first time, but there are also a lot of other people who voted no the first time who now want to support the bill," she said.
According to DeGette, Stupak can't back up his tough talk. The Nelson language probably placated most of these people.
Stupak also lived at C St, where they have tons of orgies, or something. (commenters point out that this was the harshest part of Maddow's critique). She discusses that in the clip above.
The bottom line about Stupak and his minions is this: They don't care about abortion. Seriously. I don't think they care a lick about it. They're simply using this issue as the most convenient excuse they can come up with to weasel their way out of voting "yes" for this bill. It's much easier to tell Pelosi, "I'm very concerned about aborting fetuses" than to tell her, "I'm scurrred!!! What'll happen if I vote for this? I'm so scurrrrrrrrred!!!!!!!"