Looks like my skepticism was warranted after all....

The House passed, by a 375-41 vote, the Hyde bill that I talked about yesterday, which would more than double U.S. contributions to the worldwide fight against AIDS. But not without Conservative's tacking on two amendments.

The House approved, 220-197, an amendment by Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., requiring that one-third of funds spent on prevention go to abstinence programs. ``It's important that we not just send them money, but we send them values that work,'' said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., a supporter of Pitts' proposal.

And....

The House approved an amendment by Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., to strengthen protections for religious groups. Smith and others said that Catholic groups, which object to condom distribution, care for one-fourth of AIDS victims worldwide.

The White House even issued a statement supporting language that would ``prioritize the abstinence component of the ABC [Uganda's AIDS program] approach.''

So, yesterday's L.A. Times story, claiming wide support in the House only if the amendments were left off, was misleading, to say the least.

And, Bush's "rare defiance of the social conservatives within his own party," emphasized in yesterday's N.Y. Times article, was a downright lie.

From what I'm reading, Bush and his Right-Wing fundamentalist cronies haven't changed their AIDS agenda at all. They've simply agreed to give more money to the fight against a worldwide epidemic that is devastating Africa and other third-world nations--and which, in the 1980's, decimated the Gay community.

And being very self-congratulatory about it. Look at these quotes:

``So much of what we do is really unimportant and trivial, but not today,'' said Hyde, R-Ill., chief sponsor of the measure...

``We are doing probably the greatest thing that we have done since I have been in Congress,'' said Rep. Donald Payne, an eight-term Democrat from New Jersey.

More money is good--don't get me wrong. Also, don't try to tell me the zebra is changing his stripes when all he's really doing is rolling around in the mud.

Whole story here.