Suck it, Trebeck:
Among the 126 programs President Obama proposes to slash in the 2011 budget is a $1 million scholarship program that honors the late son of Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.).
Stupak is the conservative House Democrat who held up a House vote on Obama’s health-care initiative last fall with his demands that the legislation provide stronger assurances that no federal money be spent on abortion. Stupak’s amendment was adopted and the bill survived a close vote, but only after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) spent hours calming angry pro-choice advocates
He got off light. As far as I am concerned, not one dollar for re-election, either. And if I had my way, every single abortion rights bill in the future, should there be any, would be named after Bart.
Besides, just tell him it is the fiscally conservative thing to do and he will STFU. That is how the blue dogs roll, isn’t it? You just have to say “blah blah blah fiscal conservatism blah blah blah deficit hawk” and everything becomes expendable, right?
Ash
sorry for an OT at the beginning, but you can watch the hearings on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Shocker: John McCain is being an asshole.
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN3.aspx
Jim C.
Love the idea. Stick the shiv in to remind folks that you can’t sell out your party on the biggest piece of legislation in decades.
Nice to see Obama can show some retaliation.
asiangrrlMN
Cole, are you still on the Perc? ‘Coz, you are even funnier and more acidic than ever. Whatever it is you’re doing, keep on, keeping on. I hold a special level of loathing for Bart Stupak, so this is good news…for me!
@Ash: Cannot click. Too early for me to be in a fuming rage. Can you give me a shorter?
@Jim C.: Agreed. It’s time to play a little hardball. We’ll see if it works in the end.
KCinDC
If Bart Stupak wants a scholarship in memory of his son, shouldn’t he have to do as normal people do and find the money to endow it, either by donating it himself or by encouraging a bunch of other people to do so? How did we get into a position where members of Congress think it’s appropriate to use taxpayer money to honor their relatives?
And don’t get me started on the insane though long-accepted practice of naming roads, bridges, buildings, and such after sitting politicians who were responsible for getting the government funding for them. Hasn’t anyone sponsored a law to ban that yet?
Violet
Nicely done, Obama. Glad to see he doesn’t forget who done him wrong.
gwangung
@Ash: My take? The Israeli Defense Forces, considered by many to be among the most elite fighting forces in the world, have allowed homosexuals to openly serve since 1993. Homophobes are arguing the US military is too wimpy to match the Israelis AND THEY WANT THEM TO STAY THAT WAY.
seabe
Rahm told him to do it.
Just Some Fuckhead
Add to it that the Democrats all want different things from the bill, and so value and cherish their independence and willingness to criticize (we’re not like Republicans! We criticize our leaders! Fap! Fap! Fap!) that none of them can suck up their pride and work together, and this would probably just provide another opportunity for a circular firing squad.
In John v. John, I’m awarding this round to John.
El Cid
STOP MAKING FUN OF TRIG PALIN!
Ash Can
Ooh. Cold. I know that there are plenty of people around here who hate him, but I detect Rahm Emanuel’s style here.
John Cole
@Just Some Fuckhead: When di you become such a worthless troll? Stupak’s amendment was not offered in good faith- it was a plot hatched in the family to kill the bill, going against a key Democratic platform piece (abortion rights) to scuttle health care reform.
There is a difference between intentionally fucking over your party leading to a mild bit of enforcing party discipline and a circular firing squad.
I wish you would either up your trolling game or go full metal PUMA, because your shit is just weak anymore. Half the time it isn’t even worth a response.
Fergus Wooster
Fucking awesome. Now if only someone would plant the shiv in Lieberman.
BTW, John, I noticed that the Lexicon pines for a German word denoting “face that demands to be punched” (Dangerstein). Delivered – Backpfeifengesicht, literally “backhand-face” or more appropriately “bitch-slap face”.
Someone on the webs pointed out months ago that it must have been coined for Lieberman.
Jules
Fuck Stupak.
Brilliant way to get back at him for being such a dick.
And screw him, if he wants a scholarship to honor his son he can either rise the money or pony it up himself.
Ash
@asiangrrlMN: He keeps repeating this line over and over and over and over “Oh, so this is about how we’re going to do things when the law is repealed, yeah? WELL I DON’T THINK IT SHOULD BE REPEALED ANYWAY AND ALL THESE DUDES AGREE WITH ME SO I AM A DISAPPOINT.”
Basically, just being a giant douchebag like normal.
John S.
Dude, that should be Stupak Gets the Gas Face.
Third Bass? Anyone? Anyone?
Just Some Fuckhead gets the gas face, too. He’s become the second coming of myiq1/2xu.
cyntax
Everything but the defense budget. For conservadems, nothing must interfere with the fiscally responsible policy of unending and unfunded wars.
fraught
I’m sorry his son committed suicide because he had acne but the family should be funding this program which honors him. Stupak thinks this is about himself, that his son should have a foundation because his father was Bart Stupak. They should make him pay back all the funding from 1998.
maus
@Ash:
Hahhahah like Meghan is going to throw up a series of SCATHING twitters on the guy who pays her allowance. She’s so concerned about gay rights and Republican misogyny (when it doesn’t involve her dad.)
Also laughing hard at Republican concern for Sexual Harrassment.
Max
Listening to the DADT testimony.
I’m sorry, I love the south and lived in the south, and would live in the south again, but I cannot listen to Sen Sessions without thinking about how stupid he sounds, not just his words, but his timber, etal.
Malron
@John S.: This link’s for you, my friend.
I think this is the gun Obama promised he’d bring to the knife fight. Either Stupak pulls his amendment or he loses the scholarship.
Eric U.
I really hope we can start playing hardball with the Republicans and the idiot enabler dems that are constantly voting against the majority. I can’t imagine why screwing the republicans isn’t the first thing on the agenda. If they can maintain their solidarity, they might even take over congress. This is our last best chance.
Ash
@Max: I wonder what the scientific/psychological reason for that is. There is no doubt that just simply having a southern accent portrays one as dumb as rocks, even if that’s not the case.
jeffreyw
@asiangrrlMN: I recall you liked the hawk pics, I put up a half dozen yesterday on my stream.
John
Stupak’s not actually a Blue Dog.
Just Some Fuckhead
@John Cole:
Maybe it’s not me. Maybe I’m the same as I’ve always been but you schizoid motherfuckers keep trotting out some version of this..
.. over and over and over and over and then accuse the rest of us of fomenting a circular firing squad. It would be merely intolerable if on the other hand you weren’t also criticizing everything else as if you, and only you, have the special insight to determine which criticisms are justified and which are not. You! Ha.
So you just keep trolling yer own site, spinning up everyone into a black prog hate and then call me a troll. Whatever, dude.
Zifnab
@gwangung: To be fair, the Israelis don’t have the luxury of a $700 billion / year defense budget and a 300 million strong citizenry. They’re actually forced to run a competent military rather than just throwing money into the desert and hope something sticks.
Comrade Kevin
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Yep, that’s about right. You’ve always been an idiot.
The Moar You Know
@Just Some Fuckhead: I thought you left.
Sue
“In the budget he sent to Congress Monday, Obama proposes to abolish the B.J. Stupak Olympic Scholarship, a federally funded grant program designed to aid student athletes who aspire to Olympic competition. Created in 1998, the program was renamed to honor Stupak’s son, B.J., who committed suicide in May 2000 after taking the acne drug Accutane.”
Who did this? Who took a federally funded (that would be taxpayer-funded) program and decided it was a good idea to use it to honor one person?
I would like to agree with this move, except that this isn’t just a signal to Stupak. The signal will be to Stupak but the athletes losing out on some funding are going to pay for it.
Scuffletuffle
@Just Some Fuckhead: John’s not accusing the rest of us…just you. So you don’t like what’s being said here? Just fuck off then.
artem1s
John Murtha is in intensive care after gall bladder surgery.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/02/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6166155.shtml
Pasquinade
Ash Can
@Malron:
If this is the case, it makes me wonder who’s next. Stupak wasn’t the only blue dog in the manger on HCR.
some guy
@Sue:
Agreed. Stupak can suck it, but cheering the end of a scholarship program for students athletes just ’cause it bears his surname seems ridiculously mean-spirited. Why not just remove Stupak’s name from the program instead?
Dork
Is this snark, or legit?
slag
More like this, please!
Also, Stupak isn’t a blue dog. He’s just an ass.
Bob (Not B.o.B.)
Can we spot any other payback in the budget proposal for bad health care votes or any other Reps. and Senators being assholes?
Bobby Thomson
OT, but Gates is on the TeeVee right now explaining how the first steps are being taken toward repealing DADT.
Morbo
Good Salon article on that yesterday.
John S.
That was awesome. I really miss Hip-Hop.
Cheryl from Maryland
The worthiness of the cause does not change that US taxpayers should not be funding this scholarship. I’d love to fund a scholarship with someone else’s money to honor one of my family, but I have enough ethics not to think it appropriate and cheesy.
The mere fact that Stupak believes Bush’s support of it is a good thing tells you all you need to know.
Sentient Puddle
@Dork: Stupak believes that the medication his son was taking contributed to his suicidal feelings. That medication, Accutane, is used to treat acne. So yes, it’s grounded in reality.
That said, snarking over this makes me feel like a dirty human being.
Jackie
Because it is both a threat and a carrot. I’m assuming this particular cause was special to his son in some way. Perhaps he can support the senate abortion language if he thinks on it real hard. And we can reinstate that honor to his son on a pet program. Or not ,and his legacy for his son gets plastered.
I support giving Congressman Stupak a choice.
I
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Dork: See @Sue
John Cole
@Just Some Fuckhead:
It is too early for you to be drunk, so I will try this one more time. The difference between Stupak and the circular firing squad is that Stupak is taking something that is the antithesis of a cog in the Democratic platform, abortion restrictions, and inserting it to BLOCK another aspect of the platform, health care, and doing so publicly and in concert with the Republican opposition. That deserves to be punished and is a legitimate target for party enforcement measures.
I find that completely different from the circular firing squad going on within the Democratic party over health care. Even though I wish their bill was going to be passed, I happen to think the liberals are being fucking morons, because as it has been clear all along, THE VOTES ARE NOT THERE IN THE FUCKING SENATE. There were never 51 votes for the public option in the Senate, there will not be in the immediate future. I’m sorry you can’t deal with that, and I’m sorry that you can not grok that the rules to change from 60 to 51 can not be changed until a new session and that it would require 67 votes to do that, meaning it is not likely to happen.
I’m sorry you can’t understand the distinctions between Stupak and the circular firing squad, I’m sorry you can’t understand that there are not 51 votes for the public option (and spare me the they said they supported it in the past bullshit- THEY WERE LYING), and I’m sorry you get all butthurt when I point out that one side of the firing squad is unrepentant assholes (the Senate “moderates”) and the other side of the firing squad is liberals wishing for a pony. Really, I’m sorry you don’t understand all that.
But one thing I have noticed in the past couple of weeks, when you get butthurt, you get really fucking good at not understanding things.
AhabTRuler
Uh, John…the word is grok.
WaterGirl
OT (apologies), but I just realized that today is primary day in IL. If you are from Illinois and would care to share your thoughts on the democratic candidates for senate, I would greatly appreciate it.
Just one more example – the only ones who are undecided at election time are the ones who have not been paying attention.
Mnemosyne
If JSF wants to continue shooting himself in the foot because it’s his right to keep shooting himself in the foot, why do we keep trying to take the gun away, again?
Oh, right — because then he comes back and blames us for the fact that he’s missing toes because we didn’t stop him from shooting himself in the foot.
Comrade Mary
@Mnemosyne: I saw that on House last night. It was sad.
rb
Well, this seems unfortunate (can we cut a few outdated weapons programs instead?), but you enforce pary discipline with the tools you have, not the tools you wish you had.
Comrade Mary
(No edit. Grr. Hey, when did hawt antipodean blond doctor on House get a haircut? It looks all crisp and tousled and stuff. Yes, I am easily distracted.)
John Cole
@AhabTRuler: Frag you.
gnomedad
@John Cole:
Why do you hate ponies?
Joel
@John S.: MC Hammer also gets the gas face.
batgirl
@WaterGirl: I was so disgusted by my options for governor and other races that I took a Green Party ballot this morning. I’ve never voted for a Green candidate before and I will not vote for them in the general (I’ll support (most) of the Democrats) but I guess this was my protest vote that would do no harm.
As for Senate, I like Hoffman the best but it will be Giannoulias by a wide margin. The inside party candidates almost always win these low turnout primaries.
Church Lady
@John Cole:
Stop it. I hate it when the kids fight. And you’re gonna make Fuckhead cry. Each of you need to go to timeout.
AhabTRuler
John Cole@52: You misspelled ‘Thank’, too.
Ash Can
@WaterGirl: I prefer Hoffman and voted for him, but I can live with Giannoulias. I certainly prefer him to Mark Kirk, who, while not a full metal teabagger, is more than happy to vote like one.
carlos the dwarf
@fraught:
Making fun of suicide=not ok. In fact, it’s pretty fucking offensive. His father’s douchebaggery does not make it ok.
Jackie
@WaterGirl: Don’t feel too bad. Other than a few robocalls and scattered lawnsigns this has seemed less election like to me. Maybe it’s typical and the presidential stuff is in my head as normal.
My new strategy is to vote in the primary for the most left wing person I can find. Even if I don’t particularly like or agree with them. The party canidate always wins the primary but at least it shows some policy preference. The tribune actually endorsed my congressman by announcing the other guy is too liberal for this district and that we don’t seem as pissed about the underhanded nepotism that got the incumbant in there as we used to be. Not that the challengers is wrong and the incumbant is right or is unqualified or too inexperienced.
srv
This could be a windfall for the scholarship if spun properly. I can see Beck and the rest mentioning this and trying to raise money for it since the uppity black man doesn’t care about white kids. Where’s the Red State Strike Force?
WaterGirl
@batgirl: @Ash Can: Thanks for the replies. So you both prefer Hoffman. Do you think he has a better chance of winning in the general or do you actually prefer him as a candidate?
WaterGirl
@Jackie: Thanks for the reply. For me the bottom line is who can win in the general election. It’s bad enough that I have to live with Tim Johnson (R-slimy) as my representative, but I would hate-hate-hate having a republican senator.
To me, the world is off kilter if it’s possible to lose Teddy Kennedy’s and Barack Obama’s senate seats to republicans. Or, since some people like to drop the “ic” off of Democratic, maybe we should call them “republans”.
Ash Can
@WaterGirl: I think there have been polls done that show Giannoulias with an edge over Kirk that Hoffman doesn’t have, but that could always change between now and November. I just prefer Hoffman as a candidate due to his perceived lack of fear at busting chops that should get busted. But like I say, it’s not a strong preference. I have no problem at all with Giannoulias’s stand on the issues.
batgirl
@WaterGirl: I prefer Hoffman as a candidate. Giannoulias has the best shot to beat Kirk in November. This is going to be a very tough seat for the Dems to keep. I have a lot of family and friends in Kirk’s district, self-identified Dems, that have voted for Kirk for the House.
In fact, I just had a conversation in the lunchroom with a coworker who took a Democratic primary ballot but will vote for Kirk over Giannoulias. I tried to make it clear that the only thing that matters about this seat it whether it is filled by a Dem or a Republican, that once Kirk gets to DC he will have to march in line with the GOP party and that means opposing anything and everything that Obama wants to do. I know she voted for Obama. Isn’t going to matter. She’ll vote for Kirk.
Ash Can
@batgirl: Now this is what mystifies me. Kirk is already in DC — in the House — and he’s already marching in line with the GOP party. He’s not going to have an epiphany of moderation and independence just because he’s moving from one side of the Capitol Building to the other. In fact, I’d bet on him getting worse among all those prima fucking donnas and grandstanders. Why on earth would your co-worker — and others like her — vote for Kirk?
ronin122
@Ash Can: Ditto
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
I tend to think that the scholarship is just the kind of program we can not afford when we are running deficits this high. It should be eliminated on that basis alone. The fact that it is a smackdown of Stupak is a nice bonus, though.
ronin122
@WaterGirl: I think Hoffman will be more outspoken in the Senate (something that is kinda needed right now) so he got the edge from me, although issue wise they’re similar enough to me to not be an issue; I’ll vote for either of them in November over that asshole Kirk, provided my residency is still in IL (not sure what’s happening once I graduate in May).
slag
@carlos the dwarf: To be fair, I’m not quite sure that was making fun of suicide there. I’m pretty sure that was a genuine “I’m sorry”. But I could be wrong.
batgirl
@Ash Can: Because they don’t think past their emotion reactions to candidates — i.e., I like this guy, I don’t like this guy. And they have no big picture or long-term thinking. (I know someone who voted for Obama because she met him and shook his hand when he gave a speech at the Illinois Library Association.) And yes, I try to point out that the “moderate” Kirk has voted with the GOP 88% of the time as a House member and that he has already changed his tune on the other 12% to run for the Senate.
It’s like to talking to stone. I have a cartoon of the founding fathers on the desk with the following caption:
Ash Can
@batgirl: LOL @ the cartoon!
I actually wish the lovely and talented Patrick Hughes could bump Kirk off just to jolt all the somnolent moderates out of their complacency and force them to take a good hard look at just what the GOP has become. It’s sad to think that Kirk is about as sane as the GOP gets these days. It’s Kirk’s relative sanity that keeps all the low-info voters in the dark on what his record and agenda really are.
WaterGirl
@Ash Can: @batgirl: @ronin122:
I am still torn, but your comments have been most helpful. I think we need more grown-ups who are willing to bust some chops when needed and I really want the Dems to keep this seat. I can never find the damn crystal ball when I need it the most!
Thanks again!
Edit: Batgirl, people like your co-worker scare the crap out of me!
Ash Can
No prob — also, you might want to check out these posts by Adam B at GOS on the results of his e-mail interviews with Hoffman and Giannoulias.
WaterGirl
@Ash Can: I have just read the first 2 paragraphs but I can already see that this will be very helpful. So glad I refreshed one last time before leaving the house to vote.
satby
@batgirl: I’d love a copy of that cartoon, batgirl. Linky?
Just Some Fuckhead
@John Cole: @John Cole: I understand perfectly. You keep taking shots at progressives and imagining that you’re accomplishing something stellar, like leading a reluctant party to victory by force of personality. As if such a thing were even possible by a goose-stepping former Republican. Meanwhile, thanks to the awesomeness of those steely-eyed any-bill-at-any-cost “realists”, we’ve got a bill now that will doom Democrats equally whether it passes or not, according to the latest polling I saw.
And despite there being no evidence that progressives or activists or whoever yer kicking out blindly at have actually had anything to do with this disaster other than screaming “You’re heading for disaster!”, you continue to advance the myth they are somehow to blame.
I am sympathetic to the lazy charge that progressives damned everything to hell by being skeptical of the product offered by the Senate. Progressives are at once powerless to enact their agenda and so powerful they can doom everyone else’s agenda by simply being unhappy. Which makes them pretty convenient scapegoats for those who actually fubarred this thing.
batgirl
Here you go:
http://www.dancollinscartoons.com/HustlerCartoons2.html
batgirl
@satby: Linky:
http://www.dancollinscartoons.com/HustlerCartoons2.html
WaterGirl
@Ash Can: Read the diaries you linked as well as a third diary by AdamB. I now know a ton more about both candidates, so thank you for that. There are things I really like about both of them.
Joe Bauers
I think the real Democrats in the caucus need to amend every bill that Stupak ever introduces to include provisions for 50 new abortion clinics to be built in Michigan.
MNPundit
I think it’s fine actually. Obama just told him: “Your son’s life was worth shit.”
Nice.
WaterGirl
@MNPundit: So when Stupak says that Bush did that every year in the budget (and then put it back later), I guess Bush told Stupak “Your son’s life was worth shit” too?
I was offended when someone above made it sound like Stupak’s son committed suicide because of acne, rather than as a reaction to a drug for treading. But I call bullshit on what you just posted.
kansi
@MNPundit: What? Really, what?
scarshapedstar
Stupak doesn’t want the government’s money involved in the death of children, so why should it pay money in the name of his dead child? I hope he’s super happy now.
John Cole
Well played. Mock realists while denying reality.
It is not their fault, and they have been royally screwed throughout this entire process, but if they do vote down the Senate bill because they are unhappy, they will be the ones who finally killed health care.
They know this, too, which is why Pelosi just issued another statement today saying they will not pass the Senate bill unless the Senate passes reconciliation with some fixes first. They know the Senate is not going to do that, but they do not want the inevitable blame when the Senate says no and the House votes down the Senate bill.
It sucks, and again, they have been screwed, but it is what it is. Getting all shitty about things doesn’t change the (and I know you hate this word) realities.
Just Some Fuckhead
@John Cole: WTF? So all this time you’ve been wizzing all over yer commenters and some portions of the left blogosphere, you’ve actually been talking about house progressives that already voted for a watered down health care bill? And now if they don’t come around and save yer sorry ass after you had all the realities all mapped out and accounted for, it’s their fault?
lmfao
Laughter aside, it isn’t clear to me it’s actually they who are holding this up in the house. I’ve heard it’s them, I’ve heard it’s the Stupak caucus, I’ve heard it’s Democrats that don’t want to vote for a bill that is deeply unpopular with the electorate. But I’m not actually able to find out who it is specifically that’s holding this thing up.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Comrade Kevin:
Fix’t.
@The Moar You Know: “I thought you left.”
He did. He’s just standing in the front yard yelling at us.
@Ash Can: @Bob (Not B.o.B.):
This is what I was asking here when the “budget freeze” was announced but I was drowned out in the uproar of uninformed manic-progressive outrage. I have no doubt that Obama is sending more than a few well-aimed shots across a few self-important bows. This would be very effective even if Obama doesn’t go after every single spineless Democrat. Anyone in on the ‘inside game’ of politics on capitol hill is going to get the message in this; if you don’t play ball then you can expect that it will cost you.
What I find offensive is doing something like this for your son because you have the power to. If Bart wants to have his son remembered then he can pull the cash out of his own pocket or raise it via fundraising rather than forcing everyone in the country pay for it. In this case I understand the scholarship program was going to happen and that it was renamed to memorialize his son but I believe doing that isn’t right. Choosing your deceased son’s name to rename some legislation passing by your desk seems a bit weird, almost like it was an afterthought.
If anything, let the scholarship stand if it is good on its own merits (and we can afford it) and strip his son’s name from it. IMO it never should have been put there.