Moore and Maddow Agree: Things Are Pretty Screwed up

Photo Credit: Brave New Films

Editor's note: As it turns out, Bart Stupak, the Congressman threatening to sink health reform over abortion, comes from Michael Moore's district in Michigan. In the following transcript from the Rachel Maddow Show, Maddow and guest Michael Moore talk about Stupak's crusade against the health bill and why Democrats are so bad at getting things done. 

MADDOW:  Joining us now is Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, Michael Moore, who‘s latest film “Capitalism: A Love Story” is just now out on DVD. Michael Moore, I‘ve wanted to have you on the show for so long.  Thank you so much for coming in.  It‘s really nice to meet you.

MICHAEL MOORE, FILMMAKER:  Thanks.  I‘m so honored to be here.  I love watching the show and thank you very much.

MADDOW:  You really watch it?

MOORE:  I‘ve been watching—I‘ll tell you, I‘ve been watching this - the whole Bart Stupak thing.  As you mentioned, this is my congressman.  I had no idea after, especially last week‘s show, I turned the TV off, I said to my wife, our congressman lives in a brothel and he belongs to a cult.  What‘s going on?!

MADDOW:  You know, he wants everybody to know that he didn‘t belong to The Family for the eight years that he lived at The Family‘s subsidized congressmen townhouse with all the affairs going on.

MOORE:  Yes.  And if he was living with, say, in house of skinheads, he probably would just say, hey, you know, all these kids were out skateboarding.  He just said, yes, I‘ve got a cheap room, come on in.

MADDOW:  It‘s amazing.

MOORE:  Now, it‘s totally amazing.  It‘s embarrassing. You know, Michigan‘s a great state.  I live in his district actually.  It‘s 31 of the 80-plus counties in Michigan he represents. All of northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.  So—and I know him.  He‘s a former Michigan state trooper, a police officer.  And, you know, he‘s done good things and he‘s, you know, he‘s—NRA‘s been after him and he stood up to them. And—but this has just been shocking.  And it‘s unconscionable that he would try to stop, even this watered down, pathetic version of a health care bill that—over his own personal religious beliefs.  I just—it just—you know, it‘s kind of like—my feeling is, OK, if you don‘t want to have an abortion, don‘t have one, you know?  If you don‘t want to sleep with somebody of the same gender, don‘t do it. If you don‘t want to own a gun—well, actually, that‘s a little different, because if you have 50 guns in your garage, I‘m a little concerned about that.  But everything else it‘s like—I don‘t know where they get this sense of they need to control everybody else‘s private lives.

MADDOW:  Well, the thing that‘s—the thing that‘s hard about it for me is what we just talked about in this previous segment, that if he‘s really concerned about federal funding for abortion, there really isn‘t any federal funding for abortion in this thing.  And if he really wants to try to get—to stop health reform, unless he can get this language put in there, there‘s—by the rules, there‘s no way to put that language in there. All the things that he‘s supposedly standing on principle about either aren‘t true or are impossible.

MOORE:  Right.

MADDOW:  And so, what‘s it about?  It‘s hard to—I don‘t know.  It‘s hard to get inside of that, I guess.