{"id":359580,"date":"2010-02-24T19:30:19","date_gmt":"2010-02-25T00:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/firedoglake.com\/?p=69029"},"modified":"2010-02-24T19:30:19","modified_gmt":"2010-02-25T00:30:19","slug":"boehner-chooses-stupak-for-late-invite-to-health-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/359580","title":{"rendered":"Boehner Chooses Stupak for Late Invite to Health Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Stupak campaign sign (photo: Brian Rendel via Flickr)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I’m going to hand it to John Boehner on this one. It’s a brilliant little maneuver<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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“I write today to respectfully ask that you invite Rep. Stupak to participate in the February 25 health care summit so that the will of the American people \u2013 and that of a bipartisan majority in the House \u2013 on the critical issue of life will be appropriately represented during the discussion.”<\/p>\n

“Regrettably, millions of Americans are already deeply skeptical about the February 25 summit. They have noted with disappointment the decision by the White House to use the existing legislation as the starting point for the discussion \u2013 despite the fact that the current bills are opposed by a majority of the American people \u2013 rather than starting the discussion with a clean sheet of paper. They have noted with consternation the White House decision to exclude governors and state legislators representing states that will bear the heaviest burdens if the current legislation is enacted. Including Representative Stupak in the February 25 discussion, by contrast, would send a signal that the White House respects the views of a majority of Americans and a bipartisan majority of the House on the critical issue of life.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Republicans got an extra spot because Ron Wyden got a late invitation<\/a>. In addition, Olympia Snowe was asked to the summit, but she declined<\/a> because her leadership didn’t ask her to attend. Instead, they asked Stupak.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that Stupak led the Anthem Blue Cross hearings<\/a> today, and said at them that rate hike problems like this would continue “until reform passes,”<\/a> and also said that this was why he supported a public option. But Stupak is also a peacock<\/a> on the issue of abortion funding, and the Republicans know very well that their best chance to kill the bill completely lies with him.<\/p>\n

Stupak in the summit raises the possibility of turning it into a circus and shifting focus away from where the White House and Democratic leaders would rather go. They’ve been hiding from this abortion issue throughout this debate, but Stupak won’t go away. Publicly, however, the White House reacted calmly to the news:<\/p>\n

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A White House official said Obama would welcome Stupak at the table, but it’s unclear whether he will be the consensus pick of House and Senate Republicans.<\/p>\n

“They can bring whoever they want,” the official said, as long as the person is a member of Congress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This summit may actually get more theatrical, anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/strong>: Stupak was on Fox News today, incidentally, and he basically said that the House couldn’t pass the Obama-backed compromise bill, and not just because of abortion, but due to the long implementation time and the excise tax. I recognize that a lot of this is just posturing<\/a> right now, but these are significant concerns. Actually, I think Stupak should be there tomorrow. He seems to be the most important stumbling block. Might as well hash this out in public.<\/p>\n

UPDATE II<\/strong>: In case you missed it, the other GOP summit picks from the House are here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Stupak campaign sign (photo: Brian Rendel via Flickr) I’m going to hand it to John Boehner on this one. It’s a brilliant little maneuver. “I write today to respectfully ask that you invite Rep. Stupak to participate in the February 25 health care summit so that the will of the American people \u2013 and that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4406,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-359580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4406"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}