Fetuses of America, meet your new spokesperson.
While I never thought I'd be declaring someone who doesn't like Bart Stupak anything but a friend, Randy Neugebauer's "baby killer" accusation this Monday on the House floor to Stupak earns him a raging douchebag award.
Stupak, who whose democratic vote was essential for securing the health care bill, agreed to remove his anti-abortion amendment when Obama took on the Hyde Amendment as an executive order. While this move keeps federal abortion access funds to poor women just as limited as before, it secured Stupak's vote for HCR, thereby not putting millions of American's health on the line for his own "moral" high-ground.
While Stupak revealed his change of plans, Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) shouted "baby killer" down to the double-timing democrat below.
Stupak has asked for an apology, but Neugebauer doesn't seem especially remorseful. While Neugebauer has since clarified he was calling the bill a baby killer and not Stupak, it looks like he is capitalizing on his name-calling as evidenced by a new video, obvo the start of his next campaign, where Neugebauer stands with his silent, shifty-eyed wife Dana and declares:
"You know what, I'm never going to quit speaking on behalf of the unborn. I'm never going to quit speaking on behalf of the people of Texas and the people of the United States that find this policy unacceptable."
...Which is funny, because I'm thinking that insured Texan women (who now will have to write a separate check for abortion coverage, thanks to the Nelson [a douche in his own right] Amendment), poor and uninsured Texan women (who can't afford an abortion), recent immigrant residents of Texas (who now can't receive Medicaid until five years of residency--which btw, still does not cover abortion because of the Hyde Amendment and because Texas does not offer additional coverage), and the undocumented female immigrant population of Texas (who now cannot purchase health insurance) also find certain new HCR policies unacceptable. Maybe give those constituents of yours some of your attention, Neuge-bag. (Read more about how HCR affects Latino and immigrant populations at National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health).
And as other bloggers have said, it's hard to feel too bad for Stupak, who was willing to put the entire HCR bill on the line over how he felt women's bodies should be regulated. It's also hard to be upset when, as Jodi Jacobson at RH Reality Check writes, Stupak should
...use this moment to insist that the pro-life movement make a blanket apology to pro-choice advocacy groups, pro-choice legislators, and to women, clinic workers, and doctors everywhere.
Because Stupak is one among many who have created the environment in which Neugebarger thought this was appropriate in the first place. He is now lying in the bed that he--and others in the "pro-life" movement--have made, so to speak.
And of course there's the infuriating irony that greater access to health care and birth control is what decreases the rate of abortion, not further limitations on access, douches.
Unfortunately Neugebauer isn't alone in his hateful and childish reactions to the health care reform bill. His uncalled for hatred practically pales next to recent actions of the Tea Party, including but not limited to:
Using "n----r" while chanting "Kill the bill" at Representative Joe Lewis, and spitting Representative Emanuel Cleaver, both black democratic representatives. Jim Clyburn, the House Majority Leader said "I heard people saying things today I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to try to get off the back of the bus. It was shocking to me."
- Referring to openly-gay Representative Barney Frank as a "faggot" and "homo."
- Taunting a pro-HCR protester with Parkinson's at a Columbus Ohio rally. Classy.
(Check out this Brave New Foundation video and petition against Republican bigotry).
To wrap up the douchebaggery of the GOP, please read and share Bob Herbert's NYT op-ed, "An Absence of Class" if you haven't yet.
