From Steve Benen, more reasons to regret the outcome of the midterm elections [emphasis mine]:
It's not like conservatives haven't been telegraphing their punches. Republican officials at the state level appear almost desperate to tackle culture-war social issues, and have grand ambitions. GOP activists and their lawmaker allies expect to restrict abortion rights, expand concealed-weapon laws, prohibit stem-cell research, severely limit gay rights, and privatize all kinds of services, including public education.
And then there's Congress, where the incoming House Republican majority has already said it intends to tackle birthright citizenship early in the new year. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) recently added that it's just not possible for someone to be "a fiscal conservative and not be a social conservative."
And worst of all for pro-choice advocates, Joe Pitts and John Boehner, with their newly acquired power. From The New York Times [emphasis mine]:
A leading Congressional opponent of abortion rights, who is in line to take charge of an influential House panel, plans to press for much stricter limits on the procedure.
The selection of the lawmaker, Representative Joe Pitts, Republican of Pennsylvania, as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health presages a major shift on abortion and family planning, according to opponents and supporters of abortion rights.
Opponents of abortion gained about 45 seats in the midterm elections, and they count the next speaker, Representative John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, as a staunch ally, virtually guaranteeing more conflicts with the White House on the issue.
Mr. Pitts was chosen last week as the chairman of the subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over private health insurance, Medicaid and much of Medicare, as well as the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.
In urging Republican leaders to choose Mr. Pitts, the National Right to Life Committee said he had "made the protection of the sanctity of innocent human life the cornerstone of his service in the House."
