Watching the House debate on the health care reform bill this weekend turned out to be quite entertaining. In fact, it drew my attention away from the usual college football and fall chores. At least I managed to spend a few hours working on the long-overdue task of stacking firewood for the winter.

Why would a conservative Republican be so enthralled by this train wreck of legislation? What really struck me were the events ensuing from the introduction of an amendment submitted by (Democratic!) Rep. Bart Stupak to strike any federal funding of abortion from the overall bill. Stupak, a devout anti-abortion Catholic from Michigan, along with about 40 of his closest Democratic congressional friends, had Pelosi over a barrell. They flatly declared that they would vote against the bill unless they were allowed to introduce a seperate amendment addressing the abortion funding issue. Since the 40 votes were enough to defeat the bill, Pelosi had no choice. She allowed the amendment to be voted upon, and it passed with Republican support. So now the Democrats were in the extremely uncomfortable position of voting for an overall bill that would include ironclad language restricting the use of federal funds for any insurance policy that covers abortion. This would effectively outlaw abortion for low income women. The pro-choice contingent was of course furious at this turn of events.

So where is the irony? Well, it has really nothing to do with abortion itself, or a person's view about this explosive topic. The great irony is this:  Before the bill was even passed in the House, we already had our first example of the government inserting itself into the private health care of our citizens in a way that the Democrats evidently didn't quite imagine.

Curiously, those who have spent their entire adult lives fighting for "Choice" abandoned this supposedly iron-clad principle in less than 24 hours in order to give their party a victory on the overall health care reform bill. For them, political expediency carried the day over their core principles.

As Democrats basked in their victory Saturday night, many of them didn't yet realize that they had just been administered a bitter dose of their own medicine. And more is to come. We saw how a group of congressmen within the Democratic party held the bill up because they didn't want their tax dollars used for abortion. Fine with me since I happen to be a pro-lifer, but not so fine for the pro-choice crowd. What else? If health care is nationalized, keeping my grandmother alive on life support for a few years would be paid for by your taxes. For how many years are you willing to do this? How much will we spend on an infant's care? How much will we spend on rehabilitation for a disabled person? If this bill becomes law, these will become matters for public political debate (and possibly political expediency), not decisions based upon one's own personal values. We got a preview of this in vivid detail on Saturday.

PS: I just finished reading the Boston Globe's article on Rep. Michael Capuano's (D-Mass.) flip flop after his lecture to Martha Coakley on the ways of Washington.  Stand by for more entertainment to come as the Democrats dance from the frying pan of health care reform to the fire of abortion