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Who is the lone Democrat some think could kill health care reform?
Fri Mar 5, 7:30 pm ET
Anyone who's followed the health care debate even casually over the past year has probably heard Rep. Bart Stupak's name mentioned a time or two. The nine-term Democrat from Michigan is the author of the "Stupak Amendment," a rider attached to the House health care legislation that would effectively ban most government funding of abortion under the new health care system. Now, as House and Senate leaders prepare to hammer out next steps, Stupak is claiming that he and a dozen or so anti-abortion Democratic colleagues who supported the House bill in November will refuse to back any compromise bill that doesn't keep his amendment intact. That is more than enough votes to kill the legislation.
All of which might lead many outside the Beltway to wonder who Stupak is, and how he's come to wield such clout.
Before his star turn in the health care debate, Stupak was a fairly typical midlevel Democrat. His Michigan district is culturally conservative, but heavily pro-labor, so he's simultaneously a fierce critic of free-trade agreements like NAFTA and a vocal opponent of abortion. He's best known in policy-wonk circles for his profile as Congress' main consumer watchdog on food safety issues. His consumer protection workload also takes in pharmacy regulation—an issue Stupak feels a strong personal connection to, via his conviction that his son B.J. was driven to commit suicide in 2000 by side effects of the powerful anti-acne drug Accutane.
Now, however, Stupak's name is forever linked to the abortion issue. A longtime co-chair of the House's Pro-Life Caucus (with New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith), Stupak has marshaled his swing bloc of anti-abortion Democratic votes into a perch sufficiently influential to prompt the House's Democratic leaders to ponder creative legislative options to secure the group's continued support, like a separate bill or an executive order from President Obama containing the language banning federal money for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or imminent danger to a mother's life.
Stupak also has been tied to the "The Family," an influential but reclusive group that includes several of Washington's biggest Christian power players, some of whom have rented apartments in a townhouse on C Street, near the Capitol. It is a connection Stupak is now doing his best to downplay.
Much of what is known about the group comes from the work of investigative journalist Jeff Sharlet. His New York Times best-seller, "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power," notes the group's core theological instruction reinforces a belief among its members that they've been handpicked by God to "rule the world."
When contacted by Yahoo! News for comment on Stupak's membership in the Family or other associated groups, such as the Fellowship Foundation and the International Foundation, a spokesperson for Stupak provided us with a letter that the congressman recently penned for constituents. It reads in part:
Thank you for your communication on C Street, a house where I previously rented a room in Washington, D.C.
I no longer reside at the C Street house. Due to the recent controversy regarding the International Foundation and some former residents of the C Street house, I decided to move... I do not belong to any religious group referred to as "The Family" and I have never been asked to sign a contract or oath of secrecy concerning C Street or its residents. I remain a devout Catholic and practice my faith.
At no point did renting a room at C Street influence any of my votes or my ability to serve as your congressman.
(Read the full text of Stupak's letter here.)
However, in a telephone interview with Yahoo! News, Jeff Sharlet dismissed Stupak's effort to distance himself from the group. When researching his book, Sharlet lived at a Family-run Virginia home with another member of the group who said that Stupak was serving as his spiritual mentor. Stupak's disclaimer about never signing a secrecy oath is beside the point, Sharlet added, because no member does this. And as to whether he was influenced by the organization's teaching, Sharlet noted: "This is absolutely unfeasible. The only way this is possible would be if he walked around with his eyes and ears covered for at least seven years."
Of course, it's always possible that Family-style tutelage has aided Stupak's sudden storming of the center of the House's health care debate. After all, the Obama White House deliberately left a power vacuum open in the reform package by leaving most of the details up to Congress. And as Sharlet quotes some of the group's key instructional material in The Family, strong leaders throughout history "understood the power of a small core of people."
Fri Mar 5, 7:30 pm ET
Anyone who's followed the health care debate even casually over the past year has probably heard Rep. Bart Stupak's name mentioned a time or two. The nine-term Democrat from Michigan is the author of the "Stupak Amendment," a rider attached to the House health care legislation that would effectively ban most government funding of abortion under the new health care system. Now, as House and Senate leaders prepare to hammer out next steps, Stupak is claiming that he and a dozen or so anti-abortion Democratic colleagues who supported the House bill in November will refuse to back any compromise bill that doesn't keep his amendment intact. That is more than enough votes to kill the legislation.
All of which might lead many outside the Beltway to wonder who Stupak is, and how he's come to wield such clout.
Before his star turn in the health care debate, Stupak was a fairly typical midlevel Democrat. His Michigan district is culturally conservative, but heavily pro-labor, so he's simultaneously a fierce critic of free-trade agreements like NAFTA and a vocal opponent of abortion. He's best known in policy-wonk circles for his profile as Congress' main consumer watchdog on food safety issues. His consumer protection workload also takes in pharmacy regulation—an issue Stupak feels a strong personal connection to, via his conviction that his son B.J. was driven to commit suicide in 2000 by side effects of the powerful anti-acne drug Accutane.
Now, however, Stupak's name is forever linked to the abortion issue. A longtime co-chair of the House's Pro-Life Caucus (with New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith), Stupak has marshaled his swing bloc of anti-abortion Democratic votes into a perch sufficiently influential to prompt the House's Democratic leaders to ponder creative legislative options to secure the group's continued support, like a separate bill or an executive order from President Obama containing the language banning federal money for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or imminent danger to a mother's life.
Stupak also has been tied to the "The Family," an influential but reclusive group that includes several of Washington's biggest Christian power players, some of whom have rented apartments in a townhouse on C Street, near the Capitol. It is a connection Stupak is now doing his best to downplay.
Much of what is known about the group comes from the work of investigative journalist Jeff Sharlet. His New York Times best-seller, "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power," notes the group's core theological instruction reinforces a belief among its members that they've been handpicked by God to "rule the world."
When contacted by Yahoo! News for comment on Stupak's membership in the Family or other associated groups, such as the Fellowship Foundation and the International Foundation, a spokesperson for Stupak provided us with a letter that the congressman recently penned for constituents. It reads in part:
Thank you for your communication on C Street, a house where I previously rented a room in Washington, D.C.
I no longer reside at the C Street house. Due to the recent controversy regarding the International Foundation and some former residents of the C Street house, I decided to move... I do not belong to any religious group referred to as "The Family" and I have never been asked to sign a contract or oath of secrecy concerning C Street or its residents. I remain a devout Catholic and practice my faith.
At no point did renting a room at C Street influence any of my votes or my ability to serve as your congressman.
(Read the full text of Stupak's letter here.)
However, in a telephone interview with Yahoo! News, Jeff Sharlet dismissed Stupak's effort to distance himself from the group. When researching his book, Sharlet lived at a Family-run Virginia home with another member of the group who said that Stupak was serving as his spiritual mentor. Stupak's disclaimer about never signing a secrecy oath is beside the point, Sharlet added, because no member does this. And as to whether he was influenced by the organization's teaching, Sharlet noted: "This is absolutely unfeasible. The only way this is possible would be if he walked around with his eyes and ears covered for at least seven years."
Of course, it's always possible that Family-style tutelage has aided Stupak's sudden storming of the center of the House's health care debate. After all, the Obama White House deliberately left a power vacuum open in the reform package by leaving most of the details up to Congress. And as Sharlet quotes some of the group's key instructional material in The Family, strong leaders throughout history "understood the power of a small core of people."