The Curtain Rises Today on Act 2 of the Planned Parenthood GOP Failure Theater

[Draggingtree]

RedState: The Curtain Rises Today on Act 2 of the Planned Parenthood GOP Failure Theater

By: Leon H. Wolf (Diary) | August 3rd, 2015 at 09:43 AM

 

Now you’re looking for the secret, but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking.

 

You don’t really want to know.

You want to be fooled.

By now the way the GOP does pretty much everything in the Senate has become as formulaic and predictable as a movie based on a Nicholas Sparks novel. In Act 1, some Republican Senator – usually Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 100% or Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) 100% – will propose a solution that actually stands a chance of accomplishing something. In the case of the Planned Parenthood fight, it was to attach the Planned Parenthood defunding measure to a “must pass”* Highway Bill.

 

Act 1 closes with the craven leaders of the GOP being terrified of the political fight that would be required to actually carry out the Cruz/Lee plan and running into their caves to plot.

[Draggingtree]

Commence Act 3 of the GOP’s Planned Parenthood Failure Theater

By: Leon H. Wolf (Diary) | August 3rd, 2015 at 06:38 PM

 

Imagine our surprise. The standalone bill that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 58% promised as a sop to the dumb pro-lifers failed, exactly like everyone knew it would, exactly as it was designed to do. There was literally no way McConnell was ever going to get six Democrats to sign on to the bill, or to get it past an Obama veto, without this bill having been attached to something else that the President had to sign.

 

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 58% wanted to achieve exactly one thing with this bill, which was to give Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) 17% and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) 17% cover back home for their pro-choice bona fides.

http://www.redstate.com/2015/08/03/commence-act-3-gops-planned-parenthood-failure-theater/

[Valin]

Senate GOP thwarted in effort to defund Planned Parenthood

Peter Sullivan and Jordain Carney

August 03, 2015, 06:03 pm

 

A measure to defund Planned Parenthood failed in the Senate on Monday in a 53-46 vote, likely punting the issue into the fall debate over preventing a government shutdown.

 

Republicans fell short of the 60 votes needed to move forward with the legislation, which was fast-tracked to the floor after the release of undercover videos that show Planned Parenthood officials discussing fetal tissue from abortions.

 

Only two Democrats, Sens. Joe Donnelly (Ind.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.), voted for the legislation, while two Republicans, Sen. Mark Kirk (Ill.) and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), voted against it.

 

McConnell voted no to preserve the option of bringing up the bill again. Kirk, who is facing a tough reelection race in 2016, had signaled he was likely to break with his party on the vote, citing the preventive health services that Planned Parenthood provides.

 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is running for president, was the only member to miss the vote.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

@WestVirginaRebel

 

Moved

 

Senate fails to advance Planned Parenthood defund effort

 

The Senate failed Monday to advance a Republican-led measure to halt federal aid to Planned Parenthood, but leaders of the GOP-controlled chamber appear ready to continue the fight, galvanized by a series of unsettling videos about the group.

 

 

The vote to bring debate on the bill was 53 against to 46 in favor.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Susan Collins taking heat for Planned Parenthood vote

Critics accuse the Maine senator of abandoning her constituents to support a Republican effort to defund the organization, after the release of secret video recordings of discussions about handling fetal tissue donations.
By Steve Mistler Staff Writer

8/4/15

 

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins is coming under unusual fire from women’s health groups for supporting a Republican-backed effort to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood in a Senate vote Monday.

 

But Collins’ office said the Maine senator voted for the defunding bill only on procedural grounds, because it would enable the introduction of an alternative measure that would maintain funding for most services while ordering an investigation by the Justice Department.

 

“Unfortunately, Senator Susan Collins surprised Maine women by backing away from previous statements and voting in support of defunding the country’s largest, most trusted women’s health care provider,” Planned Parenthood of Northern New England said in a statement Tuesday.

 

The Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center in Bangor, a nonprofit group that provides a range of reproductive health services, also expressed disappointment in Collins’ action.

 

(Snip)

 

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The Empire Strikes Back

[Draggingtree]

THE DONALD Is No Longer A Risk. He Is An Issue. He Only Remains A Problem Until Properly Handled

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary) | August 5th, 2015 at 09:00 AM

If you ever attempt to manage anything complicated you will have to figure out what to do about risks. Risks can be roughly defined as things that could go wrong and give you a problem. Once they do go wrong, they become issues. Then you have a problem on your hands. The political leadership of the GOP has failed at risk management. They now have an issue on their hands; THE DONALD.

 

You know who thinks we should be perfectly willing to shut down DC to stop Planned Parenthood? OK, that was a gimme. You know who else claims to believe the exact same thing?THE DONALD. Oh my, how convenient. Nobody cognizant of Donald Trump’s previous support of legalized abortion should be intellectually convinced that THE DONALD means what he is saying. He doesn’t have to. He is serving a potential customer base. He’s arbitraging the GOP voter base right out from under them because the GOP failed to evaluate and manage that risk. Now, he is no longer a risk. He is an issue.

http://www.redstate.com/2015/08/05/donald-longer-risk-issue/