ANTI-CATHOLIC DEMOCRATS’ ABUSE OF POWER CONTINUES
April 5th, 2006 by Peter
[Rep. Denise] Merrill [D-Mansfield] confirmed Tuesday that she never told [House Speaker James] Amann in advance about her plans to resurrect the issue in Section 33 in the back of the budget. The issue was placed so deep that Republicans and insiders spent hours reading more than 250 pages of documents without noticing the one-sentence provision.
And it continued yesterday with a full-blown abuse of power:
HARTFORD — Democrats filibustered on Tuesday to thwart a committee vote on the issue of emergency contraception for rape victims.
Democrats on the Appropriations Committee talked the clock out on a Republican amendment to remove a restriction that excludes hospitals that do not provide emergency contraception from a $5 million state aid program.
The committee’s 5 p.m. bill deadline passed as Rep. Deborah Heinrich, D-Madison, a supporter of emergency contraception, was recounting the New Testament parable of the Good Samaritan. As a result, there was no vote on the Republican amendment.
Afterwards, Sen. Judith G. Freedman, R-Westport, accused majority Democrats of an abuse of power. She said they misinterpreted legislative rules to prevent committee votes on Republican amendments.
“Clearly voting our ideas down is not good enough,” Freedman said.
We recommend reading the full Republican-American piece, which reveals how filibustering was just one of several parliamentary tricks employed by pro-abortion Democrats to keep the anti-Catholic provision in the budget.
The Courant piece notes the displeasure of Speaker Amann–and even Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams (D-Brooklyn)–over the Appropriations Committee’s inappropriate attempt to revive a controversial measure that had already died in another committee. But because of the abuse of power by Committee Democrats yesterday, we may not know if religious freedom in Connecticut will survive the year until the legislature’s May 3 adjournment.
