planned parenthood stop stupak donate.pngIn recent days I’ve received fundraising emails from NARAL and Planned Parenthood aimed at getting Bart Stupak out of office. Meanwhile, according to MSNBC today:

[T]here is still a concern that some important incumbents in districts that they are uniquely suited could call it quits.
At the top of the concern list this week: MI Democrat Bart Stupak… said to be simply exhausted. The criticism he received – 1st from the left, and then from the right – has worn him and his family out. And if he had to make the decision now, he’d probably NOT run.
As of this writing, a bunch of senior Democrats (many of the same ones who twisted his arm on the health care vote) are trying to talk him into running….


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The filing deadline in MI is still a month away, but veterans of that state’s politics are skeptical anyone other than Stupak can hold that district in this political climate.

Then there was this gem in Politico April 6:

The prospect of losing 2 House seats in back-to-back special elections next month has sparked a vigorous, behind-the-scenes Democratic effort, designed to avoid an outcome that could lead to panic among the rank and file….
[T]he [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] is working feverishly to prevent a very real scenario in which the 2 top Democrats split the party vote and enable Republican Charles Djou to capture the heavily Democratic seat in Hawaii’s May 22 all-party special election….
[T]he DCCC is providing under-the-radar organizational support to former Rep. Ed Case against Democratic state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa….
EMILY’s List, another Hanabusa supporter, has also been informed that that the DCCC is considering throwing its support to Case.

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Guess the following is true, from a commentary in The Nation, April 1:

[T]he Stupak Amendment… to the horror of prochoicers, passed the House in a 240-194 vote… lay[ing] bare the fact that there simply aren’t enough people willing to go to bat for abortion in Congress….
The resounding vote count… was no surprise to Washington insiders on both sides of the issue. They already knew what would soon become plain to everyone else: a Democratic majority is not the same as a prochoice majority.

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And many Democrats who entered Congress in the past few elections not only oppose abortion but will work as a bloc to stand in its way.
In fact, the Democratic majority in the House that many found so comforting in the last election was largely won by the party’s decision to embrace socially conservative candidates….
But if prochoice leaders felt beleaguered, the outcome was not so much a reflection of their loss of influence as a painful public display of their longstanding political weakness.
“The conditions that allowed healthcare reform to totally exclude abortion existed before it happened,” says Frances Kissling… who was president of Catholics for a Free Choice for 25 years. “The difference now is that everyone knows we’re powerless.”

[Graphic via HuffPo]

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