The Crisis In The Speakership Of The House Of Representatives: Not A Laughing Matter!

The Speaker of the House of Representatives is, under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, second in line for the Presidency behind the Vice President of the United States.

Therefore, who is the Speaker of the House is not an idle matter, but of crucial importance, that he or she be a mainstream, responsible public official.

The Republican Party has produced disasters in the Speakership since 1994.

First, we had Newt Gingrich, who had a scandalous private life, and was extremely confrontational in his dealings with President Bill Clinton, and yet, right wing conservatives were unhappy with him, and he resigned after two terms as Speaker, a total of four years.

Then, his theoretical successor, Bob Livingston, was forced to turn down the Speakership, due to his own private life scandals.

Then, Denny Hastert became Speaker, seemed noncontroversial, and in comparison to Gingrich and Livingston, was just that.  But now, years after his decision to leave Congress after the Republicans lost control of the House in 2006, Hastert faces prosecution and is involved in a sex scandal involving when he was a high school wrestling coach 35 years ago.

And then, there was John Boehner, who lasted almost five years, but was under constant attack by the far right Tea Party Movement, and now has decided to resign at the end of October.  Boehner created constant confrontations with Barack Obama, but also, at times, was cordial with limits imposed by his party’s dynamics.

Eric Cantor, who was supposed to be Boehner’s successor, unexpectedly lost his seat in a nomination fight last year, just as he had the chance to become the first Jewish Speaker of the House, and his defeat apparently delayed Boehner’s decision to leave, until now after the Pope has visited the United States, and spoken before the Congress in joint session.  This event brought out the tears so common to Boehner, a devout Catholic.

Now the issue is who should succeed Boehner, two heartbeats away from the Presidency, with new House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy  of California favored even though he has only been in Congress nine years, has sponsored no important legislation, and never would have been in this position had Eric Cantor not been defeated  last year.

McCarthy seems pleasant enough on a personal basis, actually more than Gingrich, Livingston, Hastert, and now Boehner, but will the right wing Tea Party movement be satisfied with him, and will he be responsible enough to conduct himself with a willingness to work with President Obama for the next year?

What if a true right wing extremist ends up as Speaker, with House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, a possible successor seen as a true extremist and often compared by many to David Duke, the former KKK leader, due to Scalise’s opposition to a Martin Luther King Holiday in Louisiana, one of the last states to adopt it?

America cannot tolerate a right wing extremist to be two heartbeats away from the Presidency, and it can be hoped that, under the present circumstances, Kevin McCarthy become Speaker, but somehow, although unlikely, hope that disillusionment with the Republican control of Congress leads to Democratic control of the House, as well as the Senate, to occur in the 2016 national elections.

Since the House is gerrymandered, giving the GOP control despite more total popular votes for the chamber being Democratic, this seems unlikely, but those who feel it is urgent that the next Democratic President have both chambers of Congress willing to work with him or her, must work very hard to try to elect a Congress controlled by the Democrats!

126 comments on “The Crisis In The Speakership Of The House Of Representatives: Not A Laughing Matter!

  1. Ariel Leis September 26, 2015 11:09 am

    Scalise is just another RINO establishment type.

  2. Ariel Leis September 26, 2015 11:14 am

    When you have a radical, ideological President violating the Constitution, especially someone as lawless and brazen as President Obama, it’s a requirement of the opposition party to take the necessary steps to stop it. John Boehner, who is retiring at the end of October, set in motion a pattern and practice of appeasement and capitulation that only emboldened Obama. The House and Senate have done nothing effective to push back, but instead turned their political guns on Conservatives for not playing along. Boehner was in way over his head and didn’t have a clue how to stand up to Obama. He was more willing to work with Nancy Pelosi and radical leftists than Conservatives. He and Mitch McConnell are the reason Donald Trump is surging; if they had been effective leaders rather than try to manage the American people, there’d be no need for an outsider candidate. This seems pretty clear. Poll: 72% of GOP Voters Dissatisfied With Boehner, McConnell. http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/poll-72-gop-voters-dissatisfied-boehner-mcconnell-n433731

  3. Ronald September 26, 2015 11:20 am

    Ariel, you are now revealed as a right wing extremist, when you can call Steve Scalise, who IS a right wing extremist, a RINO! How preposterous and ridiculous!

    You have lost all credibility completely as of now, and it is YOU who are lawless and brazen in your extremist views, not our President, who has accomplished a lot of good in the midst of right wing extremism!

    It is clear that in the future, 25-50 and 100 years in the future, that Obama will look great, and you and others like you will be part of the “dustbin” of history!

    You should be ashamed of yourself, but of course, are not, which is very troubling!

  4. Ariel Leis September 26, 2015 11:31 am

    A view from a conservative perspective. Republicans must learn their lesson and not repeat the mistakes they made following Eric Cantor’s historic fall from power—namely Republicans must replace Boehner with a “principled conservative.” With the resounding defeat of the former-House Majority Leader, conservative voters made their voices heard and sent a clear message to the Republican establishment. Washington Republicans, however, refused to get the message. The Republican establishment never learned their lesson after Cantor. They replaced Cantor with McCarthy, who is a wheeler and dealer—he is not a principled conservative. Kevin McCarthy is Eric Cantor with ten less IQ points.
    In the meantime, these days we will see the Republican and media elites trying to use Boehner’s resignation as grounds to belittle and demean Republican voters. Republican after Republican will lament what’s taking place. There will more trashing of conservatives, more trashing of the base—using liberal terminology to describe conservatives as ‘extreme right’ and they will not learn their lesson. This is also the reason why you can see the rise of Donald Trump. People are tired of donor class Republicans who refuse to represent the interests of their voters and they are ready for things to change.

  5. Pragmatic Progressive September 26, 2015 1:38 pm

    Compromise is the backbone of making government work, something the radicals on the right have forgotten.

  6. Princess Leia September 26, 2015 2:09 pm

    LOL! Trump is no outsider. He’s part of the upper class.

  7. Rustbelt Democrat September 26, 2015 2:14 pm

    Exactly! LOL! He represents the interests of Wall Street, not Main Street!

  8. Southern Liberal September 26, 2015 2:26 pm

    I guarantee you his supporters are like my boss. “I’ve got mine”, upper middle class, 90K salary, living in the suburbs in HGTV type dream homes.

  9. Ariel Leis September 26, 2015 4:40 pm

    Wow, I am not a Trump supporter, but what envy I see here. What social class envy and hate. It’s amazing that this is what has become of America.

  10. Ariel Leis September 26, 2015 4:48 pm

    Rustbelt: Who the first presidential candidate in modern history to refuse public financing of presidential general elections; the first to raise more than $1 billion; and the first Democrat to capture roughly 70% of Wall Street money, making him inter alia the biggest recipient of BP and Goldman Sachs money?

  11. Ariel Leis September 26, 2015 4:51 pm

    Pragmatic: Compromise? Who said that the Republicans would have to sit in the back seat of the car? Who said that elections have consequences?

  12. Ariel Leis September 26, 2015 5:26 pm

    Obama’s divisive legacy at full display here. The new them/us divides that Obama has sought so hard to establish during his Presidency is sadly engraved in the minds of many: the undeserving with $250,000 in annual income/the noble with less than that; people of color in need of social justice/not people of color who won’t dispense it; Republican conservatives who are greedy and selfish/Democratic liberals who are generous and caring; noble unions like the SEIU/ cutthroat employers who are stymieing the recovery; exploited patients/limb-lopping doctors; duped homeowners/conniving banks who forced loans down their throat. This is the divisive legacy that Obama alone imposed on us during his first two years when Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress and the Presidency. The gratuitous slurs against limb-lopping doctors. The thrashing of the “rich” going to the Super Bowl and Las Vegas. The artificial divide of them/us based on $250,000 of annual income (now apparently gone down to $90,000 according to Southern Liberal). The racial divisiveness from a sad cast of characters that gave us “cowards,” “stupidly,” “wise Latina,” and whites polluting the ghetto. Unhinged appointees like Van Jones and the “Mao Loving”Anita Dunn. The occasional unguarded admissions like “never waste a crisis” and “at some point I do think you’ve made enough money.” The wacky behavior from the whining of “like a dog” to the sudden junketing to Copenhagen to lobby for the Chicago Olympics. The Orwellian cheap damning of the Bush anti-terrorism protocols only to accept or expand tribunals, renditions, Guantanamo, Predators, Iraq, and intercepts and wiretaps. The golf obsession and Costa del Sol while trashing the indulgent rich. All this Obama and the Democrats managed to achieve alone between 2009-2011. No Republican congress stood in the way of Obama’s legacy which was set in stone during the first two years of his administration and today in the envious and hateful post we see that his divisive legacy has borne fruit.

  13. Former Republican September 26, 2015 6:31 pm

    LOL at his ranting! Anyone who thinks that Nancy Pelosi is a radical can not be taken seriously.

  14. Pragmatic Progressive September 26, 2015 6:39 pm

    Welcome to the forum, Former Republican. Quite agree with you. It’s the right who is radical and causing division.

  15. Ariel Leis September 26, 2015 7:26 pm

    Former Republican: I wrote “He was more willing to work with Nancy Pelosi and radical leftists than Conservatives.”
    I did not write : “He was more willing to work with Nancy Pelosi and OTHER radical leftists than Conservatives.” Thus I never implied that Pelosi was a radical leftist. A nut-job? By all means.

  16. Princess Leia September 26, 2015 7:32 pm

    There he goes trying to spin again. LOL!

  17. Ariel Leis September 26, 2015 7:52 pm

    No spin, just basic reading comprehension.

  18. Southern Liberal September 26, 2015 8:00 pm

    LOL! Right on Leia!

  19. Former Republican September 26, 2015 10:55 pm

    On a serious note, the extremists are why I left the Republican party, hence, my screen name.

  20. Ariel Leis September 27, 2015 10:29 am

    Ronald: Scalise is a now a RINO.
    1) He voted YES on Obamatrade — Fast Track Authority for TPP. The conservative position is NO.
    2) He votes YES on the $500 Billion Healthcare Bill – H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act which is expected to increase the nation’s debt by $500 billion over the next 20 years. This bill was cobbled together in a backroom deal by Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi. The conservative position is to vote NO.
    3) He voted NO to kill funding for Obama’s Executive Amnesty. The conservative position is YES. While considering HR 240, the FY 2015 Department of Homeland Security funding bill, in the Senate, newly elected Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) worked with Democrats and liberal Republicans to re-instate funding for Obama’s executive amnesty. This vote is on whether or not to kill the bill that contains funding for Obama’s executive amnesty. If this motion would have passed it would have stopped Obama’s executive amnesty from being funded.
    4) He voted NO to remove John Boehner as House Speaker. The conservative position is to vote YES.After Speaker Boehner partnered with President Obama to whip votes for the $1.1 trillion Cromnibus bill funding Obama’s illegal executive amnesty, conservatives saw that act as the last straw. Because the Speaker is determined by absolute majority of the potential 435 voting representatives, only 29 Republican votes for a candidate other than Boehner were needed to force a second ballot. Forcing a second ballot would have effectively removed John Boehner from Speaker. The conservative position was to vote for anyone besides Boehner or a Democrat. Those listed as YES attempted to remove Speaker Boehner and replace him with another Republican. Those listed as NO voted for Speaker Boehner, a Democrat, or present. Boehner received enough votes to be re-elected Speaker of the House.
    5) He voted YES to a $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill that Funds Executive Amnesty. The conservative position is to vote NO.This 1700+ page, $1.1 trillion Omnibus spending bill granted President Obama full funding for 11 of 12 federal departments for the remainder of the fiscal year – without any congressional restrictions on his unilateral action on amnesty, Obamacare, and environmental regulations. Worse, this bill actually provided Obama with an additional $2.5 billion in funds to facilitate his executive amnesty. Most egregiously, this 1700-page bill was crafted as a backroom deal by lame duck senators who were rejected by the American public in the November election. Speaker Boehner placed the bill on the floor with only 48 hours to read all 1700 pages.
    Ever since he became a leader, he has been on a downward trajectory. He helped whip votes for the budget bill in September 2014 strongly opposed by conservatives. He has also made some staff decisions that clearly indicate his break with conservatives will be more than a mere aberration.

  21. Pragmatic Progressive September 27, 2015 12:36 pm

    Correction. The conservative position on TPP is Yes. The liberal/progressive position on TPP is No.

  22. Princess Leia September 27, 2015 12:43 pm

    The Professor is right. Scalise is an extremist.

    http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/09/25/3705591/speaker-candidates-after-john-boehner/

    The third-ranking Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) made headlines earlier this year when it came out that in 2002 he had spoken to a group of white supremacists and in 2004 had been one of a handful of legislators to oppose making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday in Louisiana.

    He has fiercely opposed bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform, telling ThinkProgress that it would “actually force” non-citizens who did not want to become citizens “onto an amnesty track.”

    Scalise is a climate-change denier and last July refused to rule out impeaching President Obama over what he called executive overreach.

  23. Princess Leia September 27, 2015 12:44 pm

    Exactly right Pragmatic!

  24. Southern Liberal September 27, 2015 1:41 pm

    Once again, Pragmatic speaks truth.

  25. Ariel Leis September 27, 2015 5:15 pm

    Scalise: For us conservatives he IS an extremist in a sense. Who else but an extremist supports either directly or indirectly Obama’s agenda? I repeat, Scalise is not a conservative, he is a RINO, and RINO’s support massive government extra-constitutional intrusion,massive spending and debt, and an extreme regulatory state, just like the left, thus he is an extremist who default position is to favor government over individual freedom.

  26. Rustbelt Democrat September 27, 2015 5:26 pm

    LOL! As that article pointed out, he’s against Obama. He’s NOT on the side of liberals/progressives.

  27. Princess Leia September 27, 2015 5:34 pm

    Rustbelt,
    He’s in denial, just like the rest of the GOTea. You can’t reason with them. Best to just ignore them.

  28. Southern Liberal September 27, 2015 5:38 pm

    Only thing good I’ll say about them is that they provide some much needed humor for our day.

  29. Ariel Leis September 27, 2015 5:42 pm

    Blah blah blah, that’s Scalise for you. But when push comes to shove he voted to fund Obama’s illegal amnesty among other things. Just like all RINOs blah blah blah.

  30. Pragmatic Progressive September 27, 2015 6:34 pm

    I second that Southern Liberal!

  31. Rustbelt Democrat September 27, 2015 7:00 pm

    Last one down the toilet bowl wins! Ha! Ha!

  32. Former Republican September 28, 2015 9:14 am

    Quite right about compromise Pragmatic. The Founding Fathers put aside their differences in order to set up our government. If these tea party conservatives want to truly follow in their footsteps, they should do the same.

  33. Princess Leia September 28, 2015 10:08 am

    Well said Former Republican. While the Tea Party pledges “total victory” and “no surrender,” real leaders are ones who sit down and try to find viable solutions. Screaming may feel good, but it doesn’t get us anywhere.

  34. Pragmatic Progressive September 28, 2015 10:17 am

    Thanks for posting that Southern Liberal. That’s precisely why Congress keeps having low approval ratings.

  35. Ariel Leis September 28, 2015 4:08 pm

    Pollsters should first ask the people what percent of the government do they believe is “actually” shut-downed during a federal government shut-down. Considering the high number of people who actually believe the government shuts-down 100% this poll isn’t surprising.

  36. Former Republican September 28, 2015 5:00 pm

    Sorry pal. Majority rules.

  37. Ariel Leis September 28, 2015 5:10 pm

    Majority rules except when it comes to Congressional elections in which Democrats lose, correct? That said I bet you , yourself, don’t know what percentage of the government is actually shut-downed.. I would call it a “slim-down” instead..LOL

  38. Ronald September 28, 2015 5:23 pm

    Ariel, the “majority” rules and the Democrats lose, BECAUSE of corrupt gerrymandering by GOP State legislatures, which allow Republicans to gain more seats than they are entitled to.

    A majority of people in America voted for Democrats, but it did not show up in Congressional seats, and also often does not in state legislative seats.

    Is this true democracy, or corruption? You know the answer, Ariel, that the only way the GOP can win is through manipulation of district lines, occurring at the time of the census, giving them an unfair advantage!

  39. Southern Liberal September 28, 2015 5:27 pm

    The GOTea Party doesn’t care what polls say. They don’t care about the pain and suffering they cause. All they care about is “ideology”.

  40. Princess Leia September 28, 2015 5:29 pm

    The GOTea Party doesn’t care about facts either.

  41. Ariel Leis September 28, 2015 6:43 pm

    Ronald: Just one word : “clumping”. Gerrymandering, by conventional measures, has cost Democrats only a handful of seats, not close to enough for them to have taken a House majority in 2012, when Democratic candidates received more total votes than Republicans. Instead, what’s hurting Democrats is “clumping” — Democrats are increasingly rolling up huge margins in small geographic areas. The result is a few House districts with overwhelming Democratic majorities, which in the language of districting means “wasted” votes for Democrats (wasted, because in simple plurality elections anything more than a single vote win “wastes” votes for the winning candidate that could be used more efficiently in other districts). This is an interesting article at the New York Times, which is a left wing source not a conservative source by any means. Also Republicans did not invent gerrymandering I remind you. You seem shocked. I wonder what you would say if McConnell grew some balls and suspended the filibuster rule for this disastrous Iran deal. I bet you would be shocked also, correct? Suspend the filibuster rule, why that is unheard off! And use the so called “nuclear option” , that is so undemocratic, who would do such a thing, correct? LOL! But I digress. Please read this from the NYT , it is actually very revealing and illustrates the great divide in this country. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/upshot/why-democrats-cant-win.html

  42. Pragmatic Progressive September 28, 2015 7:43 pm

    The thing I’ve learned is that Democrats turn out more for presidential elections. During off years, they suffer from voter apathy. All elections should matter, not just the big ones.

    Also, I’ve encountered a segment of liberals/progressives online who are mirror images of the Tea Party. They whine about moderate Democrats, just like the Tea Party whines about moderate Republicans.

  43. Southern Liberal September 28, 2015 7:55 pm

    Pragmatic,

    I’ve encountered them as well. While liberals/progressives claim to support diversity when it comes to other races, religions and ethnicities – many on the far-left can be quite intolerant of other liberals/progressives for not being as liberal/progressive as they are. As a center-left liberal/progressive, I find myself having nearly as many clashes with far-left liberals/progressives as I do far-right conservatives. We only weaken what we’re trying to accomplish by being intolerant of one another.

  44. Princess Leia September 28, 2015 8:04 pm

    The voter apathy ties in with what y’all said. These liberals/progressives need to stop expecting every candidate they vote for to come in and magically fix everything – especially if they don’t have the power to do so on their own. Some of the biggest complaints I see from many liberals/progressives concerning President Obama come from people who don’t seem aware of exactly what powers a president has. Without a Congress willing to help the president accomplish their goals, they’re fairly limited in what they can actually do. But too often I see unrealistic expectations lead to apathy during midterm elections – which only benefits Republicans.

  45. Rustbelt Democrat September 28, 2015 8:07 pm

    Liberals/progressives need to make sure to vote in local and state elections as well. While most of the focus is placed on federal elections, a lot of the changes we want to make as liberals/progressives happen at the state and local level.

  46. Pragmatic Progressive September 28, 2015 8:44 pm

    Exactly right Leia. Bottom line: Part of it is the voters, part of it is the Republican’s dirty tricks.

  47. Rustbelt Democrat September 28, 2015 10:23 pm

    Thanks for posting that. Makes me curious how Bernie matches up against the other Republican candidates.

  48. Ariel Leis September 29, 2015 1:41 pm

    A compliment to Democrats: “I will give President Obama and the Senate Democrats credit. They believe in principles of Big Government. They believe in this relentless assault on our constitutional rights. They are willing to crawl over broken glass with a knife in between their teeth to fight for those principles. Unfortunately, leadership on my side of the aisle does not demonstrate the same commitment to principles. ” Ted Cruz.

  49. Rustbelt Democrat September 29, 2015 2:32 pm

    Sorry pal. We don’t take anything Ted Cruz says seriously.

  50. Princess Leia September 29, 2015 2:53 pm

    Right on Rustbelt! That’s why Cruz is in the clown car! 🙂

  51. Ronald September 29, 2015 4:24 pm

    Ariel, no one with any brains or humanity pays attention to Ted Cruz, who is a truly insane person, with his outrageous statement that he will arrest Obama on Inauguration Day, calls Obama a Communist, and also plans to kill the Ayatollah on his first day in office!

    No rational human being talks this way, and Cruz is a truly evil man, and also a Canadian at birth with a mother who was still Canadian, so he cannot become President, using the “birther” argument conjured up against Obama, who was born in the US, unlike Cruz!

    It says legions about you that you adore Cruz, and I suggest psychiatric consultation and medication as a result of your resentment of American democracy!

  52. Ariel Leis September 29, 2015 4:38 pm

    LOL ! He is praising Democrats! Is it not true that Democrats fight tooth and nail for their own agenda and partisans? Just look at how they defended PP today at the hearing! I only wish Republicans would fight as hard as Democrats do for their own ideas.

  53. Southern Liberal September 29, 2015 5:19 pm

    Well, it’s official. The Tea Party has turned Congress into a joke.

  54. Former Republican September 29, 2015 8:10 pm

    It wasn’t about agenda. It was about fighting GOTea lies.

  55. Pragmatic Progressive September 29, 2015 8:44 pm

    That’s exactly right Former Republican!

  56. Princess Leia September 29, 2015 8:59 pm

    Quite right Former Republican! The fetus Carly Fiornia spoke about was a 16 week stillborn of Lexi Oliver Fretz, who was not a patient of Planned Parenthood. The person who deserves any anger and ridicule is David Daleiden, for exploiting a mother’s tragedy in order to further his cynical, misogynist goals.

    http://crooksandliars.com/2015/09/center-medical-progress-used-unauthorized

    http://www.msnbc.com/thomas-roberts/watch/mother-of-stillborn-child-speaks-out-534458435507

  57. Southern Liberal September 30, 2015 8:34 am

    Thanks for posting that Leia. The GOTea and their witch hunts are a waste of our taxpayer money!

  58. Southern Liberal September 30, 2015 1:31 pm

    Then they’ll complain that it’s part of the war on Christmas.

  59. Ariel Leis September 30, 2015 4:12 pm

    At this moment I feel overwhelmed by sadness. Sadness because fellow human beings who in spite of political differences I have never denied their basic humanity, simply prefer to ignore the magnitude of what is going on in PP. I wonder if you have seen the video in question?.
    The video shows two different babies, neither of whom are stillborn. One was an image of Fretz, who was not a stillborn baby, but was born born prematurely at 19 weeks and died in his parents arms. This image of Fretz appeared during the 8:59 minute mark of the video, where he appears to be wrapped in a blanket and have a clip on his umbilical chord to keep it from getting infected.
    Earlier in the video, around the 5:56 mark, there is footage of another baby boy around the same gestational age as Fretz who is not stillborn either, but a baby who survived an abortion and was left in a metal bowl to die. In the footage, he kicks his legs and twitches his arms during the final moments of his life, and a pair of forceps lays beside him. The footage was provided by The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, a pro-life organization headquartered in Lake Forrest, California.
    Also in the video in question, the technician is talking about harvesting the brain of an alive, fully formed fetus. While she tells her story, there is footage of another baby (at 5:59) of roughly the same gestational age as the one whose brain she harvested. This baby is seen still kicking and its heart still beating.
    While it is obviously not the same baby as the one she harvested the brain of, the footage helps viewers to understand what a 19-week old baby looks like when hearing the testimony of an ex-employee who harvested brains from babies of the same age. Illustrating stories with appropriate images is a common journalistic technique, one used by all media outlets.
    Neither of these babies were stillborn. Both were born alive and died outside of the womb. One was a survivor of an abortion who was left to die of exposure in a metal bowl at the abortion clinic, while the other was born to a mother who wanted him, and died in her arms.
    The reality is that babies of the same gestational age are having their organs harvested every day. These videos feature graphic footage of abortionists mangling babies to harvest organs to sell. They feature abortionists admitting that babies often survive those abortions. They show high-level Planned Parenthood officials encouraging this organ-harvesting scheme, acknowledged that it is happening, and attempting to skirt scrutiny from it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzMAycMMXp8

  60. Ariel Leis September 30, 2015 4:22 pm

    The baby seen in the footage at the 5:56 mark was indeed taken from inside an abortion clinic, according to the owner of the footage. Gregg Cunningham, executive director of The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, the organization that obtained the footage and provided it to CMP, said in a statement:
    “The video clip we provided to CMP depicted an intact delivery abortion. It was filmed at an abortion clinic. It was not a miscarriage. Mothers don’t go to abortion clinics to miscarry. Had this case been a miscarriage, the mother would have presented at a hospital and her baby would have been rushed to an Isolette for appropriate neonatal care — not abandoned to writhe and eventually expire in a cold, stainless steel specimen vessel. As regards the organizational affiliation of the abortion facility in which this termination was performed, our access agreements forbid the disclosure of any information which might tend to identify the relevant clinics or personnel with whom we work. Preserving confidentiality is vital to future clinic access. I can, however, assure you that the footage in question is not anomalous. It is representative of the frequent outcomes of many late term intact delivery terminations performed at clinics of all organizational affiliations.”
    Now since I know that there will be those in this blog who will put in doubt that the baby at the 5:56 mark was indeed a baby that survived an abortion and was left to die I am posting the video of that specific abortion.
    Warning to Readers: This video is extremely graphic and includes the fetus being expelled from a woman’s body as well as images of the fetus in the metal bowl. The section that appeared in the CMP video clip can be found at about 3:40 into this clip.

  61. Ariel Leis September 30, 2015 4:23 pm

  62. Former Republican September 30, 2015 5:15 pm

    Sorry pal. Everyone with a brain knows it’s very a heavily edited video.

    mediamatters.org/research/2015/07/14/attack-on-planned-parenthood-3-deceptive-edits/204419

  63. Pragmatic Progressive September 30, 2015 5:42 pm

    Seconded. It is BLATANTLY obvious that this video was meticulously pasted together specifically to “create an impression of unseemly ethics” and elicit a shocking reaction from gullible viewers like Ariel.

  64. Ariel Leis September 30, 2015 5:43 pm

    Former: Thanks for confirming that you have not seen even one of the videos. And I am talking about the raw un-edited videos that are available and last in some cases more than an hour.

  65. Ariel Leis September 30, 2015 5:47 pm

    Pragmatic: Another one that hasn’t seen the entire un-edited version of the videos.

  66. Rustbelt Democrat September 30, 2015 6:03 pm

    Give it up, dude. You’re not winning over any converts here.

  67. Ariel Leis September 30, 2015 6:04 pm

    Of course not and it’s not my intention.

  68. Princess Leia September 30, 2015 6:23 pm

    Folks – The GOTea and their sheep are the bunch that believe the Earth is flat and that man never walked on the moon.

  69. Southern Liberal September 30, 2015 6:25 pm

    Sure would be nice to find out where these GOTea trolls come from. We can go to their hiding place and give them a taste of their own medicine.

  70. Rustbelt Democrat September 30, 2015 6:29 pm

    Ha! Ha! Good one Leia! 🙂

  71. Pragmatic Progressive September 30, 2015 6:30 pm

    They’re probably getting paid by Fake News or the Koch Bros to come here.

  72. Former Republican September 30, 2015 6:36 pm

    Ariel – Your intention is to come here and anger people, which is why you are defined as being a troll.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

    In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory,[1] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[2] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion,[3] often for their own amusement.

  73. Pragmatic Progressive September 30, 2015 6:41 pm

    Yeah, Leia! That’s pretty good! 🙂 The GOTea and their sheeple obviously believe that everything they see on YouTube is legit.

  74. Former Republican October 1, 2015 7:39 am

    Agreed, Rustbelt. He’s wasting his time here. Nobody here is interested in his cr@p.

  75. Southern Liberal October 1, 2015 9:27 am

    The bottom line: Ariel is defending a lie.

  76. Ariel Leis October 1, 2015 10:39 am

    Princess Leia: In the link you posted Cuomo emphatically states : “It was born stillborn. It was not aborted.” And his is wrong. As I stated above there are two TWO!!! different babies, neither of whom are stillborn. One was an image of Fretz, who was not a stillborn baby, but was born born prematurely at 19 weeks and died in his parents arms. This image of Fretz appeared during the 8:59 minute mark of the video. The SECOND footage is at mark 5:56 of a baby boy who survived an abortion and was left in a metal bowl to die!! While it is obviously not the same baby as the one she harvested the brain of, the footage helps viewers to understand what a 19-week old baby looks!! Is this just too hard for some of you too understand? And how do we know that it is a baby that SURVIVED an abortion?? Because here is the damn footage of the entire abortion that was used to illustrate what a 19 week fetus looks like!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X8_WEFq15Q&feature=youtu.be SO DON”T TELL ME THE FOOTAGE WAS NOT OF A BABY THAT SURVIVED AN ABORTION!!!!! THIS IS WHAT A 19 WEEK LOOKS LIKE!! Cuomo is a disgrace!

  77. Ariel Leis October 1, 2015 10:43 am

    Pragmatic: According to your Politifact link: “We don’t know the circumstances behind this video: where it came from, under what conditions it was obtained, or even if this fetus was actually aborted (as opposed to a premature birth or miscarriage).” Really?? How can they be so ignorant? Or maybe how can they be such liars! They don’t know?!! Then WTF is this!?

  78. Southern Liberal October 1, 2015 11:39 am

    I second what Former Republican said. Nobody here is interested in your BS.

  79. Pragmatic Progressive October 1, 2015 11:42 am

    Keep it up and the Professor might banish you.

  80. Rustbelt Democrat October 1, 2015 11:59 am

    Get ’em ladies! He’s losing his fear-mongering battle! 🙂

  81. Southern Liberal October 1, 2015 1:25 pm

    LOL! It’s official! The GOTea and their sheeple live in alternate universe where lies are truth and facts are fantasy!

  82. Pragmatic Progressive October 1, 2015 1:30 pm

    Quite right! LOL! We’re dealing with people who believe that Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, and the Tooth Fairy are real!

  83. Rustbelt Democrat October 1, 2015 1:37 pm

    LOL! Y’all got me rolling on the floor laughing! Bet he regrets trolling here now!

  84. Princess Leia October 1, 2015 2:27 pm

    Thanks for that. Quite agree with the person that commented. War, climate change and socioeconomic injustices are more important matters.

  85. Former Republican October 1, 2015 2:49 pm

    They don’t want to talk about that because they have no solutions.

  86. Princess Leia October 1, 2015 7:40 pm

    The only way they’ll do something is if it happens to them.

  87. Southern Liberal October 1, 2015 8:34 pm

    As our President said, the only way we’ll get any sensible gun safety laws is to vote for new representatives who will stand up to the NRA.

  88. Former Republican October 1, 2015 9:07 pm

    This historic flooding event that we’re going to be having on the East Coast this weekend – which NOAA is calling a 1 in 1000 year event – is reason enough for me to believe that climate change is real.

  89. Ariel Leis October 2, 2015 7:19 am

    Since the outset of the Florida right-to-carry law, the Florida murder rate has averaged 36% lower than it was before the law took effect, while the U.S. murder rate has averaged 15% lower.
    From the outset of the Florida right-to-carry law through July 31, 2010, Florida has revoked 5,674 or 0.3% of all issued permits. Of these:

    • 522 permits were revoked for crimes committed prior to licensure.
    • 4,955 permits were revoked for crimes committed after licensure, of which 168 involved the usage of a firearm
    http://www.justfacts.com/images/guncontrol/florida-full.PNG

  90. Ariel Leis October 2, 2015 7:20 am

    “Is an unborn baby with a human heart and human liver a human being?” Questioned asked to Pelosi and she went nuts!

  91. Princess Leia October 2, 2015 9:01 am

    LOL! Typical GOTea response to the tragedy.

  92. Former Republican October 2, 2015 9:04 am

    LOL! Justfacts.com is a right-wing propaganda site. They cherry-pick data to suit a right-wing agenda and present it as “just facts”.

  93. Pragmatic Progressive October 2, 2015 9:07 am

    Just like with the other GOTea sheeple, nothing our troll here says is meant to be taken seriously.

  94. Ariel Leis October 2, 2015 9:54 am

    The Democrats problem isn’t so much nefarious GOP maneuvers to create favorable boundaries for their candidates, as it is the Voting Rights Act that has created so many majority-minority districts. If all the lawsuits are successful, it will be African-American and Hispanic Democratic officeholders that are the big losers, not the Republicans….the current Democratic court challenges to various districts around the country don’t amount to enough seats to tip the House in their direction even if they were all successful. But the goal is to set in place legal standards that would forbid states from lumping a large percentage of their African-American voters in to a few districts, leaving the rest dominated by white voters.
    There’s no question that this practice has been a godsend for Republicans and a disaster for the Democrats. African-Americans are a huge part of the Democrats’ base throughout the country. In the south, they have become virtually their sole bulwark of support. Thus, grouping them together in a few districts has the effect of making the Democrats non-competitive everywhere else.
    But what was left out of the Post article is the fact that this idea wasn’t invented in a backroom by some evil GOP genius bent on marginalizing blacks and empowering conservatives. Instead, it was more or less invented by liberal judges who interpreted the Voting Rights Act as mandating not just the right of everyone to vote but the creation of an electoral environment in which minorities could be set up to succeed. Ending majority-minority district will help the Democrats across the board. But it will set them up for an epic confrontation with their most loyal voters and that group’s political leaders. There is simply no way that the Congressional Black Caucus will ever consent to their numbers being decimated merely to help the Democratic Party.” https://www.commentarymagazine.com/politics-ideas/liberals-democrats/the-truth-about-race-gerrymandering-and-the-democrats-house-of-representatives/

  95. Princess Leia October 2, 2015 9:57 am

    LOL! He defends cheating as well.

  96. Rustbelt Democrat October 2, 2015 10:04 am

    Folks – His Commentarymagazine.com link is right-wing.

  97. Ariel Leis October 2, 2015 10:08 am

    And Think Progress (Regress), MSNBC, and Crooksandliars are LEFT WING! LOL

  98. Former Republican October 2, 2015 10:34 am

    Sorry pal. Truth has a liberal bias. 🙂

  99. Pragmatic Progressive October 2, 2015 10:37 am

    First, Think Progress is NOT regressive. Second, the sites we post are credible news sources.

  100. Southern Liberal October 2, 2015 10:38 am

    Amen to that Former Republican and Pragmatic! 🙂

  101. Princess Leia October 2, 2015 11:02 am

    Also, political blogs we post here from time to time get factual information, from, not only news sources that are wayyyyy more credible than Faux Snooze, but also from official US government websites, which end in “(dot)gov” – “.gov”

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