Pelosi's Abortion Game Punked the Pro-Lifers

As more and more information comes out about the vote on the Stupak abortion amendment to the health care bill, the more I think the pro-lifers got suckered:

POLITICO’s Patrick O'Connor and John Bresnahan: “[W]hen Pelosi announced late Friday that she would allow an amendment strictly limiting insurance coverage of abortions, it touched off an angry yelling match between [Rep. Rosa ]DeLauro and another Pelosi confidant, California Rep. George Miller, and tears from some veteran female lawmakers, according to people in the room. Some of the lawmakers argued that Pelosi was turning her back on a decades-long campaign by female Democratic members in support of abortion rights. Miller rose to Pelosi’s defense, which resulted in an angry confrontation between him and DeLauro, said the sources. … In the end, Pelosi’s strategy paid off in a big win for her and President Barack Obama. … Pelosi wasn’t the only one getting pressure on the amendment. As rumors spread that Republicans might vote ‘present’ [on the amendment] in order to scuttle the entire bill [because then it might not get enough D votes -- the ‘poison pill’ strategy], even Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called Republican leader John Boehner to make sure the GOP didn’t play any games with the Stupak amendment, sources said. …

“[T]he speaker’s decision — like so many others she made during the drafting of this bill — showed Pelosi, a Roman Catholic and committed supporter of reproductive rights, to be … ruthlessly practical … In an interview, DeLauro denied yelling at Miller, although the Connecticut Democrat admitted that she made her views ‘strongly known’ to those in the room. … Pelosi … lived up to … her reputation as a diligent vote counter, who knew when to stroke the needs of her diverse membership and when to make the hard decisions to deliver the bill she and others in her caucus have long dreamed about. The drama had built for months, pitting a group of Democrats against the Catholic Church. Priests and bishops were calling members to lobby for stricter language to limit abortion coverage, members and aides said last week. But the final decision played out over a few furious hours Friday night as the fate of the broader bill still hung in the balance … ‘Normally, at the end of the day, you’re arguing over fine-tuning,’ said an aide whose boss was involved in the negotiations. ‘But this is a sizable change to current policy. So everyone was kind of stunned.’”

I highlighted in red the very strategy I suggested on Saturday before the vote. I was afraid that passing the Stupak amendment would enable the passage of the entire bill, while giving the pro-lifers a temporary victory at best.

I think I was right. Sorry, pro-lifers and Catholic Bishops, you got punked.