The Upper Peninsula’s Congressman Bart Stupak certainly has a higher profile now than he had just two weeks ago. Not sure if he enjoys his new celebrity status.
I talked to him on the phone a couple of times last week during the wrangling over the health care bill, and he was clearly conflicted: he supported the bill but he was adamant in his opposition to public funding for abortions, and he thought the bill wasn’t explicit enough in its prohibition of using those funds.
For several days, when the bill’s fate was in doubt, liberals hammered him. Rachel Maddow spent much of her show on MSNBC belittling him and referring to him as a “backbencher” who was looking for his 15 minutes of fame.
Connie Saltonstall suddenly announced she was challenging Stupak in the Democratic primary this year–an attack on him from the left for holding up health care reform
Then at the last minute, Stupak reached agreement with the President on the bill. Stupak would support it and in return, the President would issue an executive order expressly prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortions.
Conservatives understandably were upset at the switch and effectively called him a coward or a Judas or a “Baby killer!” And he got a new challenger—Republican Daniel Benishek of Iron Mountain. UP Republicans are energized by the challenge and think Benishek, a doctor and a political novice, has a genuine chance to unseat the nine term incumbent in November.
In short, Stupak has gone from being a quietly effective Congressman holding a “safe” seat to someone who’s been villified by both the right and the left, and could face a serious threat of being unseated in November.
Similar stories are taking place all over the nation.
Who would have thought that something seemingly so benign as “health care reform” would have brought all this about?