Stupak's decision didn't surprise me

Many Democrats fell on their swords rather than their principles in this frightening health "care" (take-over) debate. I would guess Bart Stupak (D-MI) knew before his vote what course his future would be. Here's Jim Taranto's take:

"Stupak allowed himself to be thoroughly humiliated during the ObamaCare debate. A proponent of socialized medicine but foe of abortion, he held out for months, insisting that he wouldn't vote for a bill that permitted federal funding of abortion. At the last minute he and a small group of "pro-life" Democrats ran up the white flag, casting the deciding votes in exchange for an executive order that everyone understood was meaningless.

Thus Stupak cast aside his putative principles and failed even to save face. You can see why he might want to "spend more time with the family"--and never have to show his face in public again."

I also believe the Conservative cause was weakened by hanging the defeat of this disaster on a few pro-life Democrats. Even if Obama had carved in the marble of his heart that he would no longer support late term abortions or taking the lives of Down Syndrome babies (93% aborted) and would not joke about special needs children and adults on late night talk shows, in the balance, it wouldn't undo all the other death blows he's dealing to the country.

Mind Your Own Damn Business Politics, a blog

Here's a blog with some well thought-out principles. I've only read a few of his entries, but he seems to stick with his plan. I particularly like points 7 and 8 of his 10 principles.

7. Everything has a cost. Government can only give to one group by taking resources from someone else. Therefore, be careful about taxing the other guy.
Example: Don’t decide that the rich person doesn’t need to buy that yacht unless you are willing to tell the people that build and maintain that yacht that they are not entitled to their jobs because the government has a better use for the rich person’s money.
8. Self sufficiency and personal accomplishments are good. Helping others is good when you give that help of your own free will. Using government to compel others to help with your cause is not good, no matter how good you believe your cause to be. The people you compel may have causes of their own. They certainly have needs.

I particularly believe that churches that take government money to run their array of "good works" from pre-schools, to lunch programs, to work training programs need to reconsider Christ's challenge to meet the needs of those less fortunate.

Principles of MYODB | Mind Your Own Damn Business Politics