How desperate have Democrats become in their attempt to convince pro-life House moderates to support the Senate version of ObamaCare?  Steny Hoyer suggested yesterday that Democrats could produce a bill that would “relate” to Rep. Bart Stupak’s opposition to the bill over abortion funding.  Chances of it passing in a Congress dominated by Democrats?  Well …

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday that lawmakers could draft separate pieces of legislation with abortion language to earn the support of anti-abortion rights Democrats on healthcare reform legislation.

Stupak has said that 12 lawmakers who previously backed healthcare reform legislation in the House could withhold their support if the Senate’s abortion language, which was largely upheld by the president’s fixes, remains unchanged. Twelve defections would likely prevent the healthcare overhaul from passing the House.

“Separate pieces of legislation could be passed that would relate to that,” Hoyer told reporters after a meeting with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) “That’s a possibility. I talked to Mr. Stupak today, and I’m going to be talking to him next week and he indicated he wanted to have some discussions with people. And I will do that.”

There are only two reasons why Bart Stupak would agree to that strategy.  One would be that Stupak is a complete idiot.  The other … all right, the other would also have to be that Stupak is a complete idiot.

How exactly would this work?  Nancy Pelosi would have to allow it to come to a floor vote — the same Nancy Pelosi who only allowed Stupak a vote on the amendment in the first place because she would have lost the ObamaCare vote without it.  Is Nancy Pelosi a die-hard abortion opponent, or someone who wants to see federal funding of abortion as part of a government overhaul and takeover of the health-care system? (Oh, let’s not always see the same hands.)  Then, assuming that the Senate would pass it when they just got done stripping out the Stupak language three months ago, the bill would have to go to President Barack Obama for his signature.  That would be the same Barack Obama who said this on the campaign trail in 2007:

In other words, a separate bill with the Stupak language has about as much chance of passage as we do of seeing Obama suddenly transform into a supply-sider overnight. Stupak would have every right to be offended at this insult to his intelligence — and to ours as well.

Update: Steven Ertelt at LifeNews notes my skepticism.  Unfortunately, Stupak sounds a little less skeptical.