GOP literally revising history.

Congressional reports are often the note-taking of committee meetings. They are general statements of what happened, including who attended and whether a vote passed or not. Until now, they have been mostly free from the bitter, petty partisan hackery that we see on our TVs. The GOP has brought such civility to an end.

The Democrats are furious at how the GOP has gone back to rewrite these reports to embarrass them. And the rewrites are not pretty! Descriptions of amendments were originally written in a neutral tone. But regarding one particular abortion bill (the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act), the GOP went back and rewrote the Dems' descriptions in the 2002 report.

(An explanation of this amendment first, the Dems said the bill had a serious flaw--it allowed a rapist-father to sue anyone who may have assisted in the cross-border abortion, no matter how tangential.)

DEMS' COMMENTS: "a Scott amendment to exempt cab drivers, bus drivers and others in the business transportation profession from the criminal provisions in the bill (no 13-17)".

GOP REWRITE. "Mr. Scott offered an amendment that would have exempted sexual predators from prosecution if they are taxicab drivers, bus drivers, or others in the business of professional transport."

(For more examples, check here.)

It's pretty plain that the Dems weren't trying to protect "sexual predators." But the truth has never been an obstacle to Republicans. The amendment would prohibit a parent from suing a taxi driver who took a fare across a border to get an abortion (keep in mind, many cities are along state borders). The taxi driver is just doing his job. It's not against the law for a teenager to take a cab (and many teenagers look like young adults).

There are other smears in the report as well. There are amendments by Dems that wanted to keep relatives and others from being prosecuted if they in any way aided the teenager in getting the abortion. The GOP repeatedly characterized this as protecting "sexual predators." If a girl gets pregnant by her boyfriend, and she is then aided by her parents, clergy, bus drivers, etc. to go get an abortion, are they ALL "sexual predators"?

And imagine, a father who rapes his child can sue the taxi driver for taking his child across a river where the abortion doctor is. The GOP law intimidates others from helping the incest victim, and even allows the incest rapist to cash-in with a lawsuit if they do. Thanks, GOP!

The GOP smears want us to believe that the Dems are protecting rapists. Of course, that doesn't even pass the laugh test. But this law isn't about protecting children. (When have the GOP actually cared about children?) It's about scaring the living shit out of everybody. They want to be able to sue and prosecute anybody they can claim was part of the long chain of actions that gets the girl from pregnancy to abortion. The person who drives her, the person who lets her use their phone, the friend who held the cab door open while she got in--EVERYBODY.

You'll notice that they don't write the same expansive laws regarding Corporate theft. Ken Lay couldn't possibly have stolen millions without somebody holding a door open somewhere along the way.

Again, the GOP isn't about YOU. It's about the rich. Screw you.

And now, screw the historical record. It, too, is just a tool for the GOP agenda.