Posted on 02/09/2012 2:01:05 PM PST by SeekAndFind
ABC says Lieberman, Manchin, Casey, and both Nelsons (Bill and Ben) have headed for the lifeboats, but I think that count’s already outdated. According to Fox News’s Chad Pergram, John Kerry also thinks the new rule “needs to be compromised, adjusted.” If all six vote with the GOP caucus to either repeal the rule or expand the conscience exemption, then McConnell starts with 53 votes, but since Scott Brown’s been desperate lately to show he’s as good a Democrat as Elizabeth Warren, in reality it’s probably only 52. Even with pressure mounting on swing-staters like Tester and McCaskill, it’s hard to believe they’ll get to 60. Which means unless The One reverses himself on this, nothing’s likely to happen.
Any reason to believe he might? Yup: According to ABC, some of the most influential members of his cabinet think the rule is a very bad idea.
“What are we doing here?” asked Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, stepping outside his wheelhouse to ask about a rising storm involving the Obama administration and the Catholic Church. “What’s the point?”…
The debate within the White House on this issue was, sources say, heated, and President Obama was legitimately torn. Panetta wasn’t alone in his concerns. For months, Vice President Joe Biden and then-White House chief of staff Bill Daley argued internally against the rule, sources tell ABC News. Biden and Daley didn’t think the rule was right on either the policy or the politics, sources said. Joshua Dubois, head of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, also expressed concern…
In the fall, [Planned Parenthood's Cecile] Richards brought in polling indicating that the American people overwhelmingly supported the birth control benefit in health insurance. She also highlighted statistics showing the overwhelming use of birth control.
The Vice President and others argued that this wouldn’t be seen as an issue of contraception – it would be seen as an issue of religious liberty. They questioned the polling of the rule advocates, arguing that it didn’t explain the issue in full, it ignored the question of what religious groups should have to pay for. And they argued that women voters for whom this was an important issue weren’t likely to vote for Mitt Romney, who has drawn a strong anti-abortion line as a presidential candidate, saying he would end federal funding to Planned Parenthood and supporting a “personhood” amendment that defines life as beginning at the moment of fertilization.
We’re in deep, deep trouble when Joe Biden is the voice of reason within the inner circle. Follow the link and see who he was up against on the other side: Planned Parenthood, Sebelius, Barbara Boxer — and David Plouffe, who no doubt was eyeing turnout among young O-bots and women in swing states. Why either of those groups would stay home over a slightly expanded religious-conscience exemption to contraception coverage under ObamaCare, I have no idea. Leftist groups will be too busy this summer painting Romney or Santorum as the new Hitler to agitate against Obama for expanding the exemption; besides, as we know from their changing opinions on Gitmo and drone strikes, they’re willing to cut O a lot of slack when it comes to betraying the cause. In fact, it’s the GOP’s base that desperately needs rallying, not the Democrats’. A PPP poll taken two weeks ago found that there are more Dems who are “very excited” to vote this fall than Republicans, no doubt a byproduct of despair over Romney on the right. If O had quietly granted a robust exemption on contraception to religiously-affiliated groups, he’d probably have had to weather a few weeks of grumbling from the left before the issue faded. Instead he handed the GOP a juicy culture-war issue to energize conservatives and left a flaming bag of shinola on the porch of all the religious liberals who went to bat for O-Care on the assumption that he wouldn’t force contraception coverage down their throats. Oops.
Here’s Marco Rubio on Fox this morning alongside Joe Manchin, whom I forgot in yesterday’s roll call of swing-state Democrats who are nervous about the new rule. He and Rubio are co-sponsoring legislation to repeal it. Like I say, I doubt they’ll have the votes, but the politics of a centrist Democrat joining up with a tea-party senator to challenge them is pure poison for the White House among undecideds.
“We’re in deep, deep trouble when Joe Biden is the voice of reason within the inner circle. “
Hillary could’ve been Obama’s VP and she’d be for the rule.
Jon Cary probably wants more “nuance”.
You're saying only this little part is wrong and Obama is loving it. You've been conned!!
“What are we doing here?” asked Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, stepping outside his wheelhouse to ask about a rising storm involving the Obama administration and the Catholic Church. “What’s the point?”…
S’matter, Leo, don’t know who your boy is? Idiot.
During the primary, Hillary was endorsed by ‘Emily’s List’...meaning they felt she was even more pro-abort than Hussein.
That would be, until he got Kathleen on his team.
If you need a “conscience” clause, something is wrong. Ya think??
So while it will make good talking points, obummer will never have to pull out the veto pen.
If the SCOTUS declares obamacare unconstitutional, this whole issue is moot.
“You’re saying only this little part is wrong and Obama is loving it. You’ve been conned!! “
Obamacare screws everyone equally but just one rule makes it Obama against Catholics.
Of the five, four of them voted for the health care law. And Manchin would have voted for it too had he been in the senate at the time.
They’re fooling nobody.
LMAO. Later these Senators willbe like the Italian ship captain who said he didnt get in the lifeboat , he fell in.
That’s the whole point as to why the pro-aborts are so vehement about forcing this on everyone.
If there is ANY HINT that abortion has a moral component,
that leads inexorably to the truth that it is murder,
and those that have participated in it have committed murder.
And liberals are “good people”, donchaknow, so they can’t think of themselves as murderers.
Otherwise, he would be more than happy to throw his Catholic faith under the bus in order to rubberstamp his bum chum ObaMao.
It seems to me the President of the United States essentially assumed power greater than the Pope; he unilaterally changed the law of the Church.
It is a breathtaking power grab. Has this been done since Henry VIII? No, Hussein has not kicked out Catholics and seized their property, but he has as a matter of fact, vetoed laws of the Church.
Hussein once again shows he is willing to exercise tyrannical powers.
This is all about setting a very high bar! Everyone knows that once an entitlement is established, it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to remove without political peril!
Look, the way that Obamacare was written, every President gets to go through and make changes to the insurance requirements and standards from one year to the next.
If Obama says this is covered, the next President says NO, we are removing this, then the people will now feel like they are having “a right removed” by those evil Republicans!
That is why he decided to shoot for the moon! He is hoping to set the bar so high that once established, no one will ever be able to remove it without stumbling politically! PERIOD!
It is too complicated to take on all of Obamacare, in any political strategy.
We have to bring up each part we don't like, separately.
Also, this is a GREAT issue in teaching the Catholic Bishops how naive they were, to give government this much power.
They all voted for Obamacare, now they don’t want to be blamed for the results - hypocrites all.
LOL!~
Manchin is another Webb- ALWAYS votes with the left when it counts, sometimes votes against them when it doesn’t matter.
‘Allahpundit’ is a sniveling fool.
Heck, Manchin probably asked Obama to have Sibelius do this so he could use his fake ‘opposition’ to drum up moderate support.
‘Allahpundit’ is a sniveling fool.
‘zackly.
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