On Thursday’s Countdown show, as MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann hosted fellow host Rachel Maddow to plug a segment on her show about pro-life Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak’s push to block any ObamaCare proposal that involves taxpayer funding of abortion, Maddow charged that Stupak was being "cowardly" in focusing his pro-life attention "targeting" poor women who "won’t fight back or can’t fight back because they don’t have the resources."
Maddow’s contention came as Olbermann – ignoring the political reality that not only does an individual Congressman have little if any influence in a President’s choice of Supreme Court nominees, but that even mustering a two-thirds vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade by constitutional amendment would be nearly impossible in any Congress, let alone an overwhelmingly Democratic one – tried to undermine Stupak’s moral authority on abortion by suggesting the Michigan Democrat was not willing to "fight that fight in the open."
Olbermann: "If he feels this way, why not introduce a constitutional amendment, draw up a federal law – gee, if maybe you could get more conservatives on the Supreme Court than you have now? Isn't a legal half-measure sideways, coming in sideways against abortion politically worse than a legal full measure?"
Maddow essentially accused Stupak of picking on defenseless women as she responded: "I'm sure he's delighted to be able to try to restrict abortion rights purely by going after women who he thinks won't fight back, by targeting women who are not well off enough to be able to pay for abortion services without insurance coverage for them."
After charging that Stupak’s efforts – like the Hyde Amendment – are a sign of not being "brave enough to make your argument on its face," she continued: "They're not really man enough to make the argument that it ought to just be gone. They'd rather just chip away from it from women they think won't fight back or can't fight back because they don't have the resources. It's cowardly, but it's the way they've been doing it for a generation."
Below is a transcript of the exchange from the Thursday, November 12, Countdown show on MSNBC:
KEITH OLBERMANN: One backdoor thing that’s evident in this – and it’s part of a big picture point that I don't really get – whatever you think of it, abortion is legal in this country. If this is Mr. Stupak's calling, if his conscience tells him you've got to stop this, why not fight that fight in the open? I mean, if he feels this way, why not introduce a constitutional amendment, draw up a federal law – gee, if maybe you could get more conservatives on the Supreme Court than you have now? Isn't a legal half-measure sideways, coming in sideways against abortion politically worse than a legal full measure?
RACHEL MADDOW: Well, I'm sure he's delighted to be able to try to restrict abortion rights purely by going after women who he thinks won't fight back, by targeting women who are not well off enough to be able to pay for abortion services without insurance coverage for them. You end up chipping away at abortion rights without ever having to be brave enough to make your argument on its face. And that's what led to the Hyde Amendment. That’s what’s led to so many of these other efforts to restrict access to abortion. They're not really man enough to make the argument that it ought to just be gone. They’d rather just chip away from it from women they think won’t fight back or can't fight back because they don't have the resources. It’s cowardly, but it’s the way they’ve been doing it for a generation.
