A Traitor In Our Battle To Stave Off The Republicans' War Against Women-- Dan Lipinski

The DC Democratic Establishment was out in force with a message yesterday: Stand Up For Women. They even have a nifty new Facebook page with pictures of Democratic heroes who do stand up for women-- like Jerry Nadler, John Conyers, Anthony Weiner, Louise Slaughter, Jackie Speier, Gwen Moore, Nita Lowey, Diana DeGette, and other members of the Pro-Choice Caucus. Understandably, you won't find a photo of Cook County's most conservative Member of Congress, Dan Lipinski (D-IL). You see, what they're all exercised about is the latest GOP anti-Choice craziness, which would force the IRS to conduct abortion audits. It's clearly a Republican bill but, like a lot of really extreme Republican bills, it can be called "bipartisan." That's because Boehner and Cantor have a patsy in the Democratic caucus: Lipinski. This is only the most recent unhinged, right-wing bill he's co-sponsoring with them:

Under a GOP-backed bill expected to sail through the House of Representatives, the Internal Revenue Service would be forced to police how Americans have paid for their abortions. To ensure that taxpayers complied with the law, IRS agents would have to investigate whether certain terminated pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. And one tax expert says that the measure could even lead to questions on tax forms: Have you had an abortion? Did you keep your receipt?

In testimony to a House taxation subcommittee on Wednesday, Thomas Barthold, the chief of staff of the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee, confirmed that one consequence of the Republicans' "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" would be to turn IRS agents into abortion cops—that is, during an audit, they'd have to determine, from evidence provided by the taxpayer, whether any tax benefit had been inappropriately used to pay for an abortion.

The proposed law, also known as H.R. 3, extends the reach of the Hyde Amendment-- which bans federal funding for abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at stake-- into many parts of the federal tax code. In some cases, the law would forbid using tax benefits-- like credits or deductions-- to pay for abortions or health insurance that covers abortion. If an American who used such a benefit were to be audited, Barthold said, the burden of proof would lie with the taxpayer to provide documentation, for example, that her abortion fell under the rape/incest/life-of-the-mother exception, or that the health insurance she had purchased did not cover abortions.

"Were this to become law, people could end up in an audit, the subject of which could be abortion, rape, and incest," says Christopher Bergin, the head of Tax Analysts, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit tax policy group. "If you pass the law like this, the IRS would be required to enforce it."

The proposal, which House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has declared a top priority of the new Republican Congress, has 221 cosponsors and is expected to pass the House easily.

The two principal sponsors are deranged Republican anti-Choice fanatic Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Lipinski, whose role in this is something akin to a Judas goat-- to deliver Democratic votes. Among the right-wing Democrats joining Lipinski in this endeavor are a really unsavory lot of perpetual aisle-crossers: Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC), Mark Critz (PA), Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN), and Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK).

You would think the fact that Critz has had more DCCC money spent on him than almost anyone since Obama was elected might make the Beltway Democrats embarrassed to attack the Republicans for this nauseating legislation. Or the fact that Steve Israel is coordinating efforts with Heath Shuler on finding appropriately conservative nominees for 2012 congressional... you know, anti-Choice, antigay Democrats who will be counted on to vote with the GOP. But nooooooooo... nothing embarrasses these people. In fact just Thursday it was announced Lipinski signed on as the principal co-sponsor of another extremist Republican bill, this time with crackpots Phil Gingrey (R-GA) and Lord Boustany (R-LA), "bipartisan legislation to repeal the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act." The freaky little worm-like Lipinski (see photo above) has a function in life: allowing Republicans to call their uber-partisan insane legislation "bipartisan."

There's an adamantly pro-Choice, progressive Democrat, John Atkinson, running for the deep blue seat Lipinski is currently occupying. He's worth investing in. (And his supporters have a niftier Facebook page up: Stop The Repeal.)

This Can't End Well... Continuing Resolutions Is A Really Bad Way To Govern America

Obama better get control of America back from this runaway mob of dangerous and delusional teabaggy nincompoops who question his legitimacy to run America because his father was black (and because he's a Democrat). A Conservative Consensus of mostly right-wing and middle of the road (and cowardly) Democrats and the bulk of the Establishment GOP passed another C.R. yesterday 271-158. Earlier the Democrats offered a motion to recommit that would protect Social Security and Medicare from the GOP/Nig Business chopping block. Once and future Speaker Pelosi's blog laid out what was at stake. The Democratic motion would protect "the Social Security and Medicare benefits Americans have earned through a lifetime of work by ensuring none of the funds in the short-term Continuing Resolution can be used to privatize and cut Social Security, reduce Medicare and turn it into a voucher program, or roll back health coverage for seniors." Every single Democrat voted for it-- even the worst of the Blue Dog corporate shills-- and only one Republican had the cajones to break with Boehner and Cantor, Walter Jones of North Carolina. It failed 190-239. Nice-- as well as incredibly rare-- to see the entire caucus stick together on something that really matters and that does differentiate the two parties. It's the opposite of what happened when the actual vote on the Continuing Resolution came up.

The Conservative Consensus that passed it included all the Blue Dogs and most of the most corporately-oriented Democrats (85 of them-- with, naturally, Hoyer leading the charge) and the conservative heart of the GOP, the Boehner-people. The Republican reactionaries and teabaggers who are dying to shut down the government, goaded on by Pence and other dangerous radicals, voted NO-- you know, your Michele Bachmanns, Louie Gohmerts, Alan Wests, Steve Kings, Mean Jean Schmidts-- as did most Democrats who worry it gives away too much of the social safety net to the Republican shredding machine. Pelosi led this larger cohort of the Democratic caucus, which included most of the Progressive Causus.

Needless to say, Dan Lipinski was part of the Conservative Consensus Boehner knew he could count on. Boehner knows he can always count on Lipinski; they're cut from the same cloth, both traitors to their working class roots, corrupted years and years ago, never to look back. Last week DWT endorsed progressive Democrat John Atkinson in his bid to win the nomination for the seat Lipinski is currently holding. After the vote yesterday Atkinson posted this on his Facebook page:

The time has come to get to work on job creation, education and on ensuring a competitive and innovative American future. By continuing to feed the Republican's addiction to imposing a narrow ideological social agenda at the expense of everything else, Congressman Lipinski, and radical Tea Party Republicans conspire once again. Today's continuing resolution delays an open discussion about the real concerns of the American people; jobs and the future. It plays into the hands of those who want to eliminate family planning, gut women's healthcare, impose job crushing taxes on employer's who provide healthcare and other divisive partisan objectives. We need to work together to solve big problems. It's time for the Republicans to defend how their relentless focus on re-fighting the culture wars of the 80's increases job-growth, prepares our kids for the future, or solves our long-term budget issues.

When John Atkinson wins the seat, you'll know you have a Democrat there, fighting for the interests of working families and small entrepreneurs, instead of for the multinational corporate monopolies that are inherently against everything America has stood for and cherished since we threw out the British colonial masters. There's no doubt which side Lipinski, or any conservatives, would take if it were the late 1770s.

Who Has The Courage To Stand Up For A Scapegoated Community Of Americans-- Not Dan Lipinski, That's For Sure

If you're not from Chicagoland you probably haven't heard of John Atkinson (yet). If you do live around the Windy City there's a chance you remember the full page ad (above) from last year, which ran in the Tribune, the Sun-Times and the Southtown Economist. The ads were put together and paid for by John and his wife Bonnie; I'm figuring they cost between $25 and $30,000. But they didn't work, Lipinski still bragging to this day-- and using Republican talking points in the process-- that he not only voted for the anti-Choice Stupak Amendment but that he was one of only 33 Democrats to cross the aisle and vote with Boehner against healthcare reform a year ago this month. Lipinski's ignoring the ads was part of the impetus that has made John throw his hat into the ring in seeking the Democratic nomination for the seat currently held by Lipinski, one of the most corrupt and reactionary Democrats in Congress.

This weekend, John officially registered with ActBlue and he's looking like a progressive and principled candidate for sending a Democratic Establishment that countenances corporate shills and bigots like Lipinksi a good strong message. You can contribute to his campaign at the Blue America Democratic message page.

President Obama won Illinois' 3rd CD with 64% of the vote, about 5 points better than either Gore or Kerry did. It's a solid Democratic district and there is no reason the party needs to keep nominating a Republican-lite shill like Lipinski, whose politics are more in tune with his home in Tennessee than with Cook County. The 3rd has one of the highest concentrations of Muslim-Americans of any district in the country and yet Lipinski, who never shuts up about super-serving Polish-Americans and other ethnic groups represented in the district, has been silent about the plight of Muslim-Americans unfairly targeted by Republican bigot Peter King in his McCarthy-like Homeland Security hearings. The day after King began his anti-Muslim hysteria, I asked John Atkinson if he would be handling this situation differently than Lipinski. He graciously agreed to write a guest post for us:

Representative Peter King (R-NY)-- in the latest example of his Party's relentless pursuit of a narrow ideological agenda-- has found yet another way to distract this new Congress from focusing on the issues that really matter to American families and businesses. Instead of working together to create jobs, pass a responsible budget, address growing concerns about our dependence on nonrenewable resources and foreign oil, the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives is spending their time investigating what they're calling "The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community's Response." 

Unfortunately, these hearings aren't just a waste of taxpayer dollars, the King hearings are an affront to our hard-working, patriotic Muslim American neighbors; and an embarrassment to anyone who believes in the American principles of fairness and religious freedom. We have Muslim Americans dying in defense of our country, teaching our children, healing our sick, serving in Congress, and living next door. They are our friends and our fellow citizens. And, according to law enforcement officials, they are on the front lines of homeland security, working hard to identify and stop those who are or may be engaged in terrorist activities.

It is outrageous enough that Peter King and his Republican colleagues are leading the charge against our Muslim American neighbors. Something is deeply wrong in this country when we begin drawing lines to separate us from each other. We deserve leaders who will bring us together-- black and white, gay and straight, people of all religions and no religion at all, people of every language and every ethnicity-- to help us work together to meet the challenges that confront us all. 

There is no question that extremism is a threat to our security-– but extremism is not limited to any single group. On the day before Peter King opened these hearings, law enforcement officials arrested a neo-Nazi in a plot to murder 1500 Martin Luther King Jr. Day marchers in Spokane, Washington. And on the day the hearings opened, police arrested five people, including the head of the Alaska Peacemakers Militia, an anti-government "Patriots" group, in a plot to murder judges and state troopers. (Source: Southern Poverty Law Center, http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2011/03/11/the-screaming-hypocrisy-of-peter-king/#more-6017)

Mr. King, why aren't we investigating "The Extent of Radicalization in the "you name the group" Community and that Community's Response"? Because, Mr. King, in America it is not OK to indict a whole community of people because of the illegal actions of a few. 

There have been times in our history when we look back and we know that our leaders, who claimed at the time to be acting in the interest of national security, got it horribly wrong. This is one of those times.

Blue America is getting to know John but my guess is that he's a very good prospect for an early endorsement. Like I said, right now you can help launch his primary campaign at our Sending the Democrats A Message page.

Congress' 2 worst anti-Choice fanatics, one from each party