Stupak Abortion 'Compromise' a Lie

Bart Stupak tried to be a hero for social conservatives everywhere in the health care debate, but when “all the power of the moment was in his frail human hands, he dropped the baby,” writes Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post. The deal Stupak struck with Barack Obama was a pure deception—Obama can revoke his executive order at any time, and even if he doesn’t it’s totally unenforceable.

Stupak knew this, because the US Conference of Catholic Bishops explained it to him. “Thus, the health-care bill passed because of a mutually understood deception—a pretense masquerading as virtue.” After the vote, Stupak went out drinking with fellow Democrats to celebrate, and, in an eerily appropriate moment, got a kiss on the cheek from Anthony Weiner. “To a Catholic man well versed in the Gospel, this is not a comforting gesture.” (More Bart Stupak stories.)