Randy Neugebauer Apologizes To Stupak, Defends "Baby Killer" Outburst

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Randy Neugebauer Defends "Baby Killer" Outburst And Apologizes For It



U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer of Lubbock is a banker, a quiet, polite guy who has made few waves in Congress and was little known beyond West Texas until he shouted out "baby killer" during the tense final hours of the health care debate.

"I'm just trying to represent the people of the 19th Congressional District," Neugebauer told Lubbock TV station KCBD on Monday. "The intensity of the American people was represented in my intensity last night. ... I still believe that that Senate bill is a baby-killing bill."

Neugebauer, a Republican, also denied that he was calling Democratic colleague Bart Stupak a name; he said that his full comment referred to the health care legislation itself.

But the fallout was immediate, as Neugebauer was the subject of daylong media reports and White House condemnation. His Democratic opponent called the outburst "embarrassing" both for Neugebauer and the people of West Texas. Allies called it an uncharacteristic flash of intensity from a four-term, 60-year-old Republican whose anti-abortion views run deep.

Still, no one was predicting that the otherwise mild-mannered Neugebauer would turn into quite the sort of cause célèbre as the hot-tempered Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., who heckled Barack Obama as a liar during the president's speech to Congress in September.

Both Wilson and his Democratic opponent quickly raised copious sums of campaign cash after the incident. Neugebauer seemed more sheepish than defiant Monday as he confessed to being the heckler Sunday night.

He issued a written apology to the U.S. House, and he called the apparent target, Stupak, to explain himself.

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Democrats viewed it as a damaging pattern of self-inflicted GOP behavior as health care came to a head, in step with racial epithets hurled at black lawmakers and anti-gay slurs aimed at Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. These comments, strategists said, kept the focus away from GOP complaints about the cost of the bill and how it was "crammed" down Americans' throats.

At the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs chastised the heckler, even as he acknowledged that passions ran high.

"We ought to be able to have that debate without the type of language and actions that we've seen in some places over the weekend," he said.



Neugebauer cruised to re-election by a ratio of 3-1 in 2008 and ran unopposed in the GOP primary this month. This year's Democratic opponent, engineer and first-time candidate Andy Wilson, has raised less than $7,000, about 1 percent of the incumbent's war chest.

Wilson said he would have voted for the bill, adding that he finds it "ironic" that Neugebauer would shout at Stupak, who led a group of anti-abortion Democrats demanding guarantees against taxpayer support for abortion.

Lubbock County GOP chairman Chris Winn said Neugebauer has zero to fear in terms of voter backlash. Quite the contrary, he said, because the comments reflect the passions of his constituents.

"Congressman Neugebauer represents his district as a Christian conservative and has done so with a great deal of respect," Winn said. "He's a gentleman, and his words should not be taken as hateful or cruel."

Abortion foes say Neugebauer was right in saying the legislation expands the federal role in paying for and promoting abortion. At the Texas Alliance for Life, executive director Joe Pojman noted that his district is safely Republican.



"He's always been solid on life issues. ... We've always been supportive. This won't change that, obviously," Pojman said.

Neugebauer's other spotlight moment came last summer, when he backed the "birther bill" requiring presidential candidates to show proof they were born on American soil. The liberal MSNBC host Keith Olbermann called him the "Worst Person in the World" for saying he wasn't sure if Obama would qualify.

As for Stupak, he accepted the personal apology but said the breach called for a more explicit apology to the House.

"I also let him know that, while we all have had a very long week and tensions were high leading up to the vote Sunday night, I feel it is important for members to maintain decorum of the House," the Democrat said.

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Sources: C-Span, Dallas Morning News, CNN, TPM, Fox News, MSNBC, Youtube, Google Maps

"Baby Killer!" Who Yelled Out This Ephithet At Bart Stupak?

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"Baby Killer!"



Someone on the House floor, seemingly from the Republican side, yelled "Baby-killer" at Bart Stupak as he was making his brief comments on the floor against the motion to recommit (which was essentially a GOP effort to capsize the vote on the abortion issue). It's still unclear who it was. We'll bring you more as we find out more.

Our Christina Bellantoni just did an impromptu interviewer with Dem pro-life Rep. Dale Kildee ...

Kildee: "We all heard it. It was disgusting!" "No one knows who it was but the person should be censured. This all started when someone yelled 'you lie' at the president."

Bellantoni: "You sure it was a member?

Kildee: "Unless they let staff on the floor and make outbursts, yes."

Late Update: There were initial reports that the yeller was Rep. John Campbell (R-CA). But in a brief exchange with reporters off the House floor a short time ago he has now adamantly denied it was him. Campbell said his wife left him a message when reports came out that it was him. Campbell: "It was clear as a bell ... I didn't look but it came from the floor, behind me and to the left ... It was close enough I decided not to turn around and look. ... It was in my area. I thought it was a southern accent."

After speaking with reporters he went back into the House chamber and then returned a few moments later and said: "Other people agree with me it was someone with a southern accent." Campbell also said that some of the Republicans on the floor recognized the voice but would not say who it was.

Even Later Update: Campbell just came out a third time to give more details to reporters ...

Campbell: "That is where the Texans sit. Californians are in one row, Texans sit behind us. I am being told it's a Texan. The people who know won't give it up."

Reporter: "Do you know who it was?"

Campbell: "No."

Me: "What will you do when you find out?"

Campbell: "Nothing - I'm not going to do anything."




Sources: MSNBC, TPM, Fox News, The Daily Beast, Youtube

Bart Stupak Caved! Executive Order Not Law! Pro-Lifers Loose!

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White House, Bart Stupak Reach Anti-Abortion Funding Agreement




The White House and anti-abortion Democrats have reached an agreement to defuse the controversy over abortion in the health reform bill — planning a series of steps that will secure the support of Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak and other Democrats to give party leaders the votes they need to pass reform, sources tell POLITICO.

Under the agreement, President Barack Obama would sign an executive order ensuring that no federal funding will go to pay for abortion under the health reform plans. In addition, Stupak will get to state his concerns about abortion funding in the bill during a colloquy on the House floor during the debate.

And then, Stupak and several other Democratic holdouts over abortion will sign on to the bill, the sources said. The agreement would almost certainly give House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the 216 votes she needs to secure an historic health reform vote by day’s end — capping a yearlong drive to achieve Obama’s signature legislative goal.

Stupak himself told reporters in the Capitol that he remains opposed to the bill at this time. "I'm a 'no' vote. There is no agreement. Until there is an agreement I'm a 'no' vote," Stupak said, but he said the negotiations on a final agreement are continuing.

Asked how many votes hang in the balance, Stupak said, “enough” — meaning enough to save or kill the bill.



But Rep. Alan Mollohan, who is one of the votes in question, told POLITICO that the language in the agreement has already been essentially cleared. Mollohan said it is only a matter of time for "the follow-through steps" to be implemented.

The small cavalcade of victories for Democratic leaders appeared to put them in position to enact the health care law while allowing more politically vulnerable lawmakers off the hook.

Earlier Sunday, Democratic leaders expressed growing confidence that they would have the votes needed to pass a sweeping health reform measure by day’s end — even as the No. 2 House leader acknowledged Democrats are still a few votes shy of a majority.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Democrats are “low single digits” away from getting the 216 votes needed to pass the bill.

“We're going to get the votes, low single digits certainly, but we're going to get the votes, and we’re going to have the votes this afternoon,” Hoyer (Md.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” "There are still members looking at it, trying to make up their minds [but], we think 216-plus votes when we call the roll."

But Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) insisted the Democrats were already there, saying Sunday would be an historic day, and said: “We have the votes now, as we speak,” he said.

Democrats hope to secure the votes of a trio of veteran Blue Dogs — Rep. Loretta Sanchez of California and retiring Reps. Marion Berry (Ark.) and John Tanner (Tenn.) — as well as a handful of anti-abortion Democrats who could break from Stupak to back the bill.

Already, Stupak’s phalanx of Anti-Abortion hard-liners has been breaking apart, with Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur announcing Sunday that she will support the health care bill. Retiring Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.), who had concerns about the bill not related to abortion, also announced Sunday that he will vote for the bill.

A round of late-night negotiations held the promise of further cracking Stupak's coalition with a proposed executive order that would reinforce the bill's ban on federal subsidies for the purchase of insurance plans that cover abortion.




The talks, led by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), were expected to continue deep into the night after a rare and wild Saturday House session that featured a visit from Obama to a Democratic Caucus meeting and a frenzied tea party-style protest against the bill and Democratic leaders on the Capitol grounds.

"It is time to pass health care reform for America, and I am confident that you are going to do it tomorrow," Obama said in an address broadcast nationwide from deep inside the underground Capitol Visitor Center. "Don't do it for me. Don't do it for Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid . Do it for the American people. They're the ones looking for action right now."

Pass or fail, Sunday's votes will be the culmination of a tortuous yearlong legislative saga. Democrats believe they will deliver on a decades-overdue promise, and Republicans believe Democrats are setting themselves up for a rout come November. At this point, Louisiana Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao is the only Republican who could back the bill — and, though he voted for the initial House bill, that seems like a long shot.

At the same time Obama spoke, several stories above the caucus bunker, thousands of protesters massed at the southeastern edge of the Capitol grounds. Several Republican lawmakers, led by Rep. Steve King of Iowa, used a bullhorn to whip up the crowd in opposition to the health care bill and the Democratic leaders who are pursuing its enactment. They derisively chanted Pelosi's first name, yelling "Nan-cy, Nan-cy, Nan-cy" in unison, as if attending a New York Mets game.

Despite the protesters, Obama's Saturday afternoon pep talk came amid good news for Democratic vote-counters, who predicted they would get the 216 votes needed to send the bulk of the health care overhaul to the president on Sunday.

In addition to expanding health insurance access to nearly every American, the measure would end insurers' ability to deny coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions. Democrats, backed by a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office, say their combined bills will also produce a surplus of $138 billion over the next decade and $1.2 trillion over the following 10 years.

In the final push to clear the underbrush for Sunday's votes, Democratic leaders killed a controversial plan to avoid a direct vote on the Senate's bill, opting instead to vote separately on both that bill and the House's fixes.


Sources: MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, Politico, Youtube

Bart Stupak's Anti-Abortion Funding Agreement Highlights, Will It Stand?

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White House, Bart Stupak Reach Anti-Abortion Funding Agreement




The White House and anti-abortion Democrats have reached an agreement to defuse the controversy over abortion in the health reform bill — planning a series of steps that will secure the support of Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak and other Democrats to give party leaders the votes they need to pass reform, sources tell POLITICO.

Under the agreement, President Barack Obama would sign an executive order ensuring that no federal funding will go to pay for abortion under the health reform plans. In addition, Stupak will get to state his concerns about abortion funding in the bill during a colloquy on the House floor during the debate.

And then, Stupak and several other Democratic holdouts over abortion will sign on to the bill, the sources said. The agreement would almost certainly give House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the 216 votes she needs to secure an historic health reform vote by day’s end — capping a yearlong drive to achieve Obama’s signature legislative goal.

Stupak himself told reporters in the Capitol that he remains opposed to the bill at this time. "I'm a 'no' vote. There is no agreement. Until there is an agreement I'm a 'no' vote," Stupak said, but he said the negotiations on a final agreement are continuing.

Asked how many votes hang in the balance, Stupak said, “enough” — meaning enough to save or kill the bill.

But Rep. Alan Mollohan, who is one of the votes in question, told POLITICO that the language in the agreement has already been essentially cleared. Mollohan said it is only a matter of time for "the follow-through steps" to be implemented.

The small cavalcade of victories for Democratic leaders appeared to put them in position to enact the health care law while allowing more politically vulnerable lawmakers off the hook.

Earlier Sunday, Democratic leaders expressed growing confidence that they would have the votes needed to pass a sweeping health reform measure by day’s end — even as the No. 2 House leader acknowledged Democrats are still a few votes shy of a majority.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Democrats are “low single digits” away from getting the 216 votes needed to pass the bill.

“We're going to get the votes, low single digits certainly, but we're going to get the votes, and we’re going to have the votes this afternoon,” Hoyer (Md.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” "There are still members looking at it, trying to make up their minds [but], we think 216-plus votes when we call the roll."

But Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) insisted the Democrats were already there, saying Sunday would be an historic day, and said: “We have the votes now, as we speak,” he said.

Democrats hope to secure the votes of a trio of veteran Blue Dogs — Rep. Loretta Sanchez of California and retiring Reps. Marion Berry (Ark.) and John Tanner (Tenn.) — as well as a handful of anti-abortion Democrats who could break from Stupak to back the bill.

Already, Stupak’s phalanx of Anti-Abortion hard-liners has been breaking apart, with Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur announcing Sunday that she will support the health care bill. Retiring Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.), who had concerns about the bill not related to abortion, also announced Sunday that he will vote for the bill.

A round of late-night negotiations held the promise of further cracking Stupak's coalition with a proposed executive order that would reinforce the bill's ban on federal subsidies for the purchase of insurance plans that cover abortion.




The talks, led by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), were expected to continue deep into the night after a rare and wild Saturday House session that featured a visit from Obama to a Democratic Caucus meeting and a frenzied tea party-style protest against the bill and Democratic leaders on the Capitol grounds.

"It is time to pass health care reform for America, and I am confident that you are going to do it tomorrow," Obama said in an address broadcast nationwide from deep inside the underground Capitol Visitor Center. "Don't do it for me. Don't do it for Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid . Do it for the American people. They're the ones looking for action right now."

Pass or fail, Sunday's votes will be the culmination of a tortuous yearlong legislative saga. Democrats believe they will deliver on a decades-overdue promise, and Republicans believe Democrats are setting themselves up for a rout come November. At this point, Louisiana Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao is the only Republican who could back the bill — and, though he voted for the initial House bill, that seems like a long shot.

At the same time Obama spoke, several stories above the caucus bunker, thousands of protesters massed at the southeastern edge of the Capitol grounds. Several Republican lawmakers, led by Rep. Steve King of Iowa, used a bullhorn to whip up the crowd in opposition to the health care bill and the Democratic leaders who are pursuing its enactment. They derisively chanted Pelosi's first name, yelling "Nan-cy, Nan-cy, Nan-cy" in unison, as if attending a New York Mets game.

Despite the protesters, Obama's Saturday afternoon pep talk came amid good news for Democratic vote-counters, who predicted they would get the 216 votes needed to send the bulk of the health care overhaul to the president on Sunday.

In addition to expanding health insurance access to nearly every American, the measure would end insurers' ability to deny coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions. Democrats, backed by a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office, say their combined bills will also produce a surplus of $138 billion over the next decade and $1.2 trillion over the following 10 years.

In the final push to clear the underbrush for Sunday's votes, Democratic leaders killed a controversial plan to avoid a direct vote on the Senate's bill, opting instead to vote separately on both that bill and the House's fixes.


Sources: MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, Politico, Youtube

Bart Stupak's Press Conference, Reaches Deal, Votes "Yes" (Videos)

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Sources: MSNBC, Fox News, Youtube, Google Maps

Pres. Obama Shocked And Angered By News of Tiller's Murder

Huffington Post----

***UPDATE*** President Obama issued the following statement about Dr. George Tiller's murder:

"I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence."

***UPDATE*** At an afternoon news conference, Wichita Police confirmed that a suspect, a 51-year-old man, had been arrested for the murder of Dr. George Tiller, reports KSN-3 News:

The suspect is currently facing one count of murder and two counts of aggravated assault for threatening onlookers who tried to intervene.

Several witnesses to the shooting attempted to intervene and chase down Tiller's killer, but he was able to flee in his blue Ford Taurus with Kansas license plate 225 BAB. Several hours later, the suspect was arrested near Gardner, Kansas on Interstate 35, reports the Kansas City Star.

Sources: White House, Huffington Post, KSN-3 News, Kansas City Star, Day Life

Woman Describes How Abortion Procedure At Tiller's Facility Nearly Killed Her

Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com)

A woman who arranged for an abortion at the Women's Health Care Services facility run by late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller says an abortion there nearly took her life. The woman, whose name has been kept confidential, shared her story with the pro-life group Operation Rescue.

The woman had the abortion last Tuesday and says abortion practitioner Shelley Sella may have botched an injection she gave the patient.

The injection allegedly caused sepsis, a systemic infection that rapidly spreads throughout the body and can cause rapid death. That is what ultimately killed Holly Patterson and some other women who died from the dangerous RU 486 abortion drugs they obtained at Planned Parenthood centers.

In an email to LifeNews.com with the details, OR officials tell LifeNews.com that the patient also accuses Sella of misdiagnosing her pregnancy at 19 weeks, even though previous medical examinations placed her pregnancy at 23 weeks, beyond the legal limit for abortions in Kansas.

On Thursday, the woman had a temperature of nearly 104 degrees and she returned to Tiller's abortion business, where she says she was locked inside a room for nearly four hours. She called for abortion center staff to release her but says her pleas went unanswered.

She tells OR officials that workers at the abortion center told her to calm down after she went into hysterics and said other patients would be upset if she didn't stop crying. The abortion facility staff allegedly told her that they would not treat her if she didn't calm down.

The woman was also told that she would have to drive three hours away to Kansas City to complete the abortion and the woman asked Tiller to complete the abortion procedure.

According to OR, the patient "observed that she continued to feel movements in her womb. Her mother was present during the removal of the baby, and observed Tiller inserting a tube into the baby's skull and removing the brains, a procedure that is illegal if the baby was still alive."

Before Tiller's facility completed the abortion, the patient told OR she feared she would be killed while sedated. During the completion of the abortion, the woman suffered an asthma attack and cardiac arrest, but was revived.

Instead of calling an ambulance, OR tells LifeNews.com that Tiller drove the woman to Wesley Medical Center in his personal vehicle. She said Tiller had problems seeing while he was driving and an abortion center staff member had to direct him through traffic.

The patient was treated and discharged from the hospital on Saturday, September 27, 2008, even though she was still in pain and feeling sick from her ordeal, OR said.

Operation Rescue president Troy Newman talked about the incident.

"We have repeatedly begged the authorities in Kansas to hold Tiller accountable for the many women he had hurt just over the past few years," he said. "How many women must be maimed or killed before Tiller is brought to justice?"

"We say it again: Tiller is a menace and we demand that he be held accountable for his dangerous, if not criminal, actions. This time, the public should not take 'no' for an answer," he added.

Newman said the incident reminds him of the shoddy treatment of 19-year old Christin Gilbert, a mentally disabled Texas woman who died from untreated sepsis during a third-trimester abortion at Tiller's center in January 2005.


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Sources: LifeNews, Operation Rescue, Huffington Post, Day Life, Google Maps