Hokay, this one's going to be a doozy; in fact, I'm amazed it hasn't been diaried already. As reported by TPM, the San Francisco activist organization CREDO Action is currently sponsoring a new tactic to call attention to the Stupak mess, in particular bringing attention to the fact that 20 pro-choice Democrats voted for the amendment. What are they doing, you ask? I'm glad you asked. They have an online petition asking the Congressmen to change their vote next time around. And for every person who signs it, they'll send a wire coathanger to each of the 20 Democrats on their list. Yup.
Why did pro-choice Democrats vote to approve the Stupak Amendment, the most serious assault on abortion rights in a generation?
According to FiveThirtyEight.com, 20 of the 64 Democrats who joined Republicans to pass the measure are nominally pro-choice. We're telling these 20 Democrats -- all of them men -- to reconsider their vote and urge Congressional leadership to do everything they can to ensure the health care bill that comes out of committee does not take us back to an era of coat hangers and back alley abortions.
Sign our petition and we'll send a coat hanger to the 20 formerly pro-choice Democrats who voted to take away women's rights.
I'm sure everyone will have an opinion about this; personally, I think it can't possibly hurt. Loud dramatics appear to be the order of the day, and if the media can give the Tea Partiers a pass with Dachau references, they can hardly blame us for exposing the very real dangers of limiting access to abortions, or at least not without exposing their own bias once again. I've always been of the belief that it's helpful in activism to fight a two-front war; the screamers outside, and the people working from the inside saying, hey, you can deal with me, or you can deal with them. Just by engaging in more confrontational tactics, we shift the Overton window back in our direction. And I think I'm supposed to capitalize Overton but I'm not sure.
But wait, once you get past the woolly theorizing, there's more! Howie Klein at DownWithTyranny.com sez:
Working Assets will also donate $1 to Blue America for each signature we gather (up to $5000) towards a fellowship to support a blogger. We got to choose who to support and we can’t think of anything more deserving than the incredible work of Mike Stark. So, please, sign the petition here.
So our buddy Mike Stark of FDL, who's been doing great work getting up in recalcitrant legislators' faces about health care reform and other thorny issues, (here he is confronting David Vitter about his refusal to condemn the judge in Louisiana who wouldn't perform interracial marriages) gets money for every person who signs this petition. But even if you're still mad at Jane Hamsher, sign it anyway.
Below is the complete list of pro-choice representatives CREDO Action will be sending coathangers to, along with their Planned Parenthood and National Right to Life scores:
Rep. Joe Baca (CA-41)
Planned Parenthood score: 100
Nat'l Right to Life score: 0
Rep. Zachary Space (OH-18)
Planned Parenthood score: 100
Nat'l Right to Life score: 0
Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (TX-23)
Planned Parenthood score: 100
Nat'l Right to Life score: 0
Rep. Christopher Carney (PA-10)
Planned Parenthood score: 100
Nat'l Right to Life score: 14
Rep. Victor Snyder (AR-2)
Planned Parenthood score: 83
Nat'l Right to Life score: 0
Rep. Silvestre Reyes (TX-16)
Planned Parenthood score: 83
Nat'l Right to Life score: 0
Rep. Jim Costa (CA-20)
Planned Parenthood score: 80
Nat'l Right to Life score: 0
Rep. Richard Neal (MA-2)
Planned Parenthood score: 77
Nat'l Right to Life score: 0
Rep. Bob Etheridge (NC-2)
Planned Parenthood score: 75
Nat'l Right to Life score: 0
Rep. Artur Davis (AL-7)
Planned Parenthood score: 71
Nat'l Right to Life score: 0
Rep. Michael Michaud (ME-2)
Planned Parenthood score: 71
Nat'l Right to Life score: 0
Rep. Jim Cooper (TN-5)
Planned Parenthood score: 71
Nat'l Right to Life score: 0
Rep. David Ross Obey (WI-7)
Planned Parenthood score: 69
Nat'l Right to Life score: 0
Rep. Dennis Cardoza (CA-18)
Planned Parenthood score: 67
Nat'l Right to Life score: 0
Rep. Albert Chandler (KY-6)
Planned Parenthood score: 67
Nat'l Right to Life score: 0
Rep. John Spratt (SC-5)
Planned Parenthood score: 67
Nat'l Right to Life score: 0
Rep. Baron Hill (IN-9)
Planned Parenthood score: 71
Nat'l Right to Life score: 14
Rep. Earl Pomeroy (ND-ALL)
Planned Parenthood score: 69
Nat'l Right to Life score: 16
Rep. Sanford Bishop (GA-2)
Planned Parenthood score: 69
Nat'l Right to Life score: 20
Rep. Jason Altmire (PA-4)
Planned Parenthood score: 67
Nat'l Right to Life score: 28