I had been dying — no pun intended — to go to one of those congressional health care reform town hall meetings.

You know, the ones where the insulated inside-the-beltway politician, with the expensive shoes, has to contend with a rowdy crowd of peasants with pitchforks deep in Flyover Country.

Well, I got my wish.

I saw Congressman Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat of the 1st District, in action. The 57-year-old Stupak, in fact, has been in the national spotlight, of late, for being a thorn in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s side for opposing a provision for the funding of abortions in the oft-changed and recently re-named national health care bill.

As an avowed right-to-lifer, representing a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment district, who lives at the Christian-friendly ‘C Street’ facility run by “The Family” while in Washington, D.C., Stupak seems like he’d be more at home in the conservative wing of the Republican Party.

He has correctly stated that the Hyde Amendment, which was enacted in 1976, makes it illegal to use taxpayer money for abortions. Along with other pro-life Democrats, the Congressman has offered an amendment (or, as the law-school-graduate-in-him calls it, “satisfactory language”) which would prohibit such funding.

Stupak has insisted that by offering his amendment, and getting the chance to vote on it, he will have “voted my conscience, stayed true to my principles.”

For his stand on behalf of the unborn, Terrence P. Jeffrey, an editor at Human Events magazine, the right-of-center publication, dubbed Stupak “the bravest member of the House of Representatives.”

After listening to him at the town hall event I attended in Petoskey, Michigan, I strongly disagree with that characterization. Stupak admitted that if his amendment fails, he could still support PelosiReidObama Care.

Talk about having it both ways. Talk about supporting pre-cradle to grave socialism. Talk about being a squish. Talk about disrespecting his constituents, who turned out by the hundreds to hear and jeer him.

After sitting through his spiel, it was apparent that Stupak, like so many of these politicos, is one of those sanctimonious social justice sorts, so enamored with providing “affordable health care” and taking down the health insurance industry, that he would jettison his own precious principles.

But here’s what also irks: The majority of residents who made the effort to travel to his town hall meetings (There were two in northern Michigan last month.) were adamantly opposed to his so-called health care reform, especially the “public option.”

Stupak wasn’t fazed or even interested in their concerns. The former state trooper mechanically treated the crowd as if he were directing a crime scene. Stupak trumpeted that it was his meeting, and threatened to kick out any over-exuberant senior citizens, since the latter were especially vocal. Signs and banners were forbidden, and “only credentialed media” could record the meeting. Law enforcement manned the school auditorium where the meeting was held. All that was missing was the yellow tape.

In keeping with such authoritarian methods, Stupak showed absolutely no compassion for taxpayers who can’t afford to finance soviet-style medicine schemes or who think it’s immoral for the ever-incompetent federal government to take over yet another private industry.

Further, anti-abortion activists were understandably annoyed with Stupak’s wishy-washy position. Isaac Miller, a Republican activist and resident of the first district, wrote: “If Stupak votes for the public funding of abortion he not only throws out his entire pro-life voting record, he throws out his constituents’ trust as well.”

Given the disgusted, frustrated, and very un-Astroturf-generated response I witnessed at the town hall meeting, that has already happened. Stupak, like the rest of the unprincipled liberal members of Congress who have decided to micromanage other people’s medical care, deserve to be shown the door.

As for the bravest members of the House of Representatives from the Midwest these days, I’d cast a vote for Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota 6th District). This feisty lawmaker crisply described the looming health care boondoogle like so: “This 2,000 page bill includes a job-killing employer mandate, an individual mandate that requires Washington bureaucrats to define what kind of coverage is acceptable, burdensome tax increases, Medicare cuts, and a huge expansion of Medicaid that will break already strained state budgets."

Yes, Ms. Michele is a right-to-life supporter, but she offers no sanctimonious talk about putting forth a pro-life amendment to ‘vote her conscience and principles,’ a la Bart Stupak.

This mom and foster mom is already principled and smart enough to know that the health care scheme advocated by the “gentleman (sic) from Michigan” violates constitutional principles of government.

Isabel Lyman blogs at the http://thecastillochronicles.blogspot.com

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DDW said:

	Obviously Stupak, like Pelosi, is another one who needs to be jerked right out of government by the hair of his head so fast that the only thing left would be his shoes where he was standing. Who do these creeps think they are? A message to Pelosi and Stupak: THERE ARE NO KINGS IN THESE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!
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November 03, 2009
Votes: +5

RP said:

... It was once thought that the purpose of a town hall meetings was for a member pf Congress to get a feel for what his/her constituents were thinking. That line of reasons has proven to be a fallacy. The REAL purpose of a town hall meeting is threefold: 1) It is a media stunt pulled off to show how much the lord cares for his fiefs. 2) It is an glorious opportunity for the fiefs to view his lord, in the flesh. 3) It is a time the lord can announce to the fiefs the content of the next five year plan. We fiefs need to let the lords know that if they persist in this behavior, especially concerning health care, they are going to be looking for a new occupation. Our lords may have a problem doing that, as their only job experience has been slopping hogs.

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November 03, 2009
Votes: +4

Still Free said:

Interested in our concerns? No way. Was Stupak (and are the rest of them) "Unfazed" -- you betcha! They could care less what we think, want, etc. Look how the TP folks were ignored in D.C. on 9-12... not even worth acknowledging by most and the "bought and sold" press. It's all about the Insiders' agenda - with some self-interest thrown in now and then for good measure. Such experts at "smoke and mirrors!" Get educated and informed on the issues, get involved and speak up! Before it's too late.

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November 03, 2009
Votes: +3

Pat Henry said:

Home of the Brave Unfazed - of course. Are we waking up? ALL of these guys and gals need booted out in the next election cycles. Let each district find some regular person and vote them in. Professional, lifetime politicians are not who needs to be courageous. We VOTERS do - courageous enough to not listen to the siren song of DemocRATS and RePUBLICANS. For some help in this process, see http://libertydefenseleague.com . It is ESPECIALLY in the STATE Houses and Senates that we can effectively draw the legal line.

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November 03, 2009
Votes: +3