Democrat health care votes make them a target

Washington Post:

Rep. Steve Driehaus (D) was among a half-dozen holdouts who voted for the health-care overhaul only after being assured that taxpayer money would not be used to pay for abortions.

Three months after that decision, many of his constituents still aren't convinced: They think lawmakers have left the door open for federal funds to be used for the procedure. And their suspicions are being fanned by Republicans who see Driehaus's southwestern Ohio district as a prime pick-up opportunity in the November midterm elections.

"I just think they're going to slide it in there somewhere," said Marcy Jackson, 33, taking a break in the shade during the St. John the Baptist Catholic parish festival in Harrison, a conservative town in the district. A few tables away, retiree Don Mercer, 56, said: "It's another one of those tricky politician things."

The debate over health care has died down, but suspicion and confusion over the new law persist. A June poll by the nonpartisan Kaiser Foundation found that nearly 42 percent of Americans are "confused" about it. Now conservative groups are hoping to sway voters trying to figure out what the dramatic changes will mean.

The law is complex. But voters say the confusion also stems from the obvious wheeling and dealing that led to its narrow passage, which critics say opened their eyes to potential loopholes in its hundreds of pages, including on the issue of abortion.

Antiabortion groups are targeting Democratic lawmakers who they say betrayed their pro-life views. The Susan B. Anthony List has run radio ads calling Driehaus's vote "the ultimate betrayal." National Right to Life, which was founded in southwest Ohio, plans to do the same.

A national GOP Web site identified 15 "Stupak's Sellouts," named after Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who served as the leader of antiabortion Democrats who ultimately backed the bill. In a recent e-mail to reporters, the National Republican Congressional Committee said Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (D-Pa.) "betrayed women and unborn children with her vote in favor of a pro-abortion health care bill."

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"There are an awful lot of pro-life people in this district who don't feel that over time it will prevent federal funding of abortions," Steve Chabot, a former GOP congressman who will face Driehaus in the fall, said of the new law.

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Driehaus unseated Chabot, a seven-term congressman, in 2008. Abortion could be a potent issue as Chabot seeks his old seat. The district is so known for its large number of antiabortion Catholics that after the health-care vote, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) remarked that Driehaus "may be a dead man. He can't go home to the West Side of Cincinnati."

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For many of us the health care bill as a whole was a monstrosity, but for some voters the abortion issue will swing their vote against those who they believe sold out on the issue. There will be lots of reasons to vote against Democrats this fall and this will be one of them.