If at first you don’t succeed…
Several Republican lawmakers are kicking off the new legislative session by starting where they left off. From Michele Bachmann trying to repeal Obamacare, to Iowa’s Steve King cracking down on anchor babies, to Tennessee Reps. Marsha Blackburn and Diane Black reviving the fight to defund Planned Parenthood—these GOPers just can’t seem to let go.
Hardball host Chris Matthews noted on Thursday that there seem to be a handful of Republicans who want to go back “into the gooey stuff that causes nothing but trouble.”
Former Republican National Chairman Michael Steele agreed. “You don’t lead off this Congress, I don’t think, with those types of legislations. You lead it off with bills that are going to create jobs, that puts the president on point to address spending, that’s where the issues are right now…that’s the sweet spot the party needs to get into.”
Matthews also pointed out that Rep. Paul Ryan cosponsored a new fetal personhood bill this week. Under the bill that the failed vice presidential candidate backs, all embryonic tissue is classified as human life from the moment of fertilization.
Democratic strategist Bob Shrum called the personhood bill a “really extreme measure.”
“It would outlaw all stem cell research, it would outlaw common forms of birth control. It’s so extreme that the voters of Mississippi rejected it in a popular referendum. Paul Ryan may believe this but I also think his appraisal of the 2016 landscape in the Republican primaries is that it’s not going to change much from 2012, that there’s going to be a purity litmus test and you have to pass that test to be the nominee,” said Shrum.
