Conservatives taking news of Fluke’s congress run with as much class as you’d expect

BONUS FUN: everything conservatives think they know about Sandra Fluke is wrong.

Everything.

To Republicans, sexism doesn't exist and the War on Women is just boys being boys

Steve Benen ticks off just a few of the reasons why Republican denials of a War on Women are laughable horsecrap:

• Republicans have gone after Texas gubernatorial hopeful Wendy Davis (D) over the details of her personal family history. One Texas Republican eventually conceded, “If this involved a man running for office, none of this would ever come up.”
• Mike Huckabee delivered a bizarre speech to the RNC in which he argued that Democrats believe women require government mandated  contraception access because women can’t control their libidos.
• Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) argued Hillary Clinton can be criticized for Bill Clinton’s Lewinsky affair 19 years ago because “sometimes it’s hard to separate one from the other.”
• Republican state policymakers continue to push new restrictions on women’s reproductive rights, including a proposed 30-day waiting period in Louisiana.
• Sean Hannity suggested yesterday the creation of an “Adopt-A-Woman Birth Control Program” as an alternative to guaranteeing contraception access in federal health care law.
• Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) wrote a book in which he argued wives should “voluntarily submit” to their husbands.
• Republican Senate hopeful Ken Buck in Colorado explained his opposition to abortion rights by comparing pregnancy to cancer, which is why he doesn’t think a woman should “be in control of her body.”
• Republican congressional hopeful Dick Black in Virginia opposes making spousal rape a crime and has called military rape “as predictable as human nature.”

All this is why the GOP chose a woman to respond to the State of the Union last night — to remind people that there are some women Republicans too. And Benen quotes New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman — another Republican woman — to explain why that’s not good enough:

It’s hard for me to phrase this politely. Sometimes Republicans think that just putting a woman up front means somehow that women are going to feel good about the party. It is not about the messenger. It’s about the message. And until we figure that one out, while it’s nice that we have a woman as a spokesperson, if the message itself doesn’t get changed a bit, it’s not going to work.

But Republicans are so invested in this anti-woman crusade of theirs that they couldn’t change even if they realize that it’s what’s costing them women’s votes. The fact that they feel absolutely comfortable saying these sorts of things in the full light of day is proof enough of that.

This has somehow become a core principle of modern Republicanism — that women are just children who can’t be trusted to make good decisions for themselves. Republicans can no more drop it now than they could get their arms around the idea that taxes are necessary.

They make the same mistake over and over and over because they think it’s not a mistake. It’s Republican Gospel. And if you find it offensive or demeaning, then they think maybe you should have your husband explain it to you, little lady.

But don’t expect Republican men to change, because they won’t. They’ve got a fucked up idea of masculinity — as evidenced by the religious right, gay panic, and an irrational fear of being “feminized" — so regarding women as fully human and equal somehow seems to mean that they wouldn’t be men anymore. Give a damn what women think and — Which-aa! — you’re “whipped.”

[photo by Lan Bui]

The GOP’s nightmare scenario is now: cascading stupidity effect under way

Just a little something to back up my earlier post arguing that attempts to spin away the GOP’s War on Women only serve to prove it’s real.

Right Wing Watch: On Friday, Allen West spoke with Steve Malzberg where he defended Mike Huckabee’s recent comment by declaring that “the Left tries to win the women’s vote by talking from the waist down” while Republicans seek to reach the hearts and minds of female voters.

Asserting that Democrats want the government to be “the sugar daddy” and replace men, West said Democrats have been “caught guilty as always” and are responding by attacking Huckabee. He then went on to claim that the Left remains utterly silent when women like Malala Yousafzai are abused and attacked by the Taliban before declaring that “I’m going to be very blunt: the Left tries to win the women’s vote by talking from the waist down.”

See, because women aren’t really concerned about all that contraception and reproductive health stuff — or if they do are then they’re wrong. Only Republican men like Allen West and Mike Huckabee know what’s important to women, so listen up and learn, ladies.

But this is also the beginning of the nightmare scenario, where one moron says one very stupid thing and other morons rush to defend him because that’s what they think you do when conservatives get criticized. This is what the GOP has been trying very, very hard to avoid and most likely won’t be able to. You can’t spend years encouraging this sort of thing and expect to be able to shut it off when it turns out to be bad politics. These people are going to engage in insane and clueless sexism because that’s modern conservatism. It’s what Limbaugh does every day, it’s what rightwing blogs do every day, so it’s absolutely normal and not at all crazy to these guys. They’re going to keep doing it because they just don’t know any better.

And West is probably more popular in the base than Huckabee — meaning that even more people will likely come forward to defend him. Then others will come out to defend them. And cetera and cetera and cetera, until the unofficial Republican position will be that women who care about reproductive health and freedom are just loose, slutty morons being preyed upon by Democrats.

That’s exactly the wrong way to convince people you’re not waging a sexist War on Women. But it’s exactly what the base believes.

[photo by Gage Skidmore]

Republicans admit they have a women problem

National Journal: When the House Judiciary Committee passed a late-term abortion ban in June, Republican leaders scrambled to find a female, media-savvy lawmaker to bring the legislation to the floor. Their biggest problem: Not a single Republican woman was represented among the committee’s 23 Republican members. They eventually settled on Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, who isn’t on the Judiciary Committee.

The episode underscored a growing problem that is worrying Republicans: Women are badly underrepresented within their party in the Congress. Only 8 percent of House Republicans are women, and there are only four female Republican senators. Of the long list of potential 2016 GOP presidential contenders, there’s not a single woman.

Party leaders want to close the gender gap, but worry that it will be difficult with very few female leaders in Congress to handle outreach.

"It’s not good enough. It’s not. And it’s not reflective of the electorate," said Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., one of just three Republican women in the freshman class of 2012, who were sworn into the House alongside 17 female Democratic colleagues. “We have a message I think that reaches women and we need to make sure that we’re actively and aggressively telling that story. And there’s no better way to do it than being a woman who talks about it."

Wagner argues that women bring an important perspective on some of the biggest issues the country is currently dealing with, such as family budgets, health care, entitlements, and energy policy—all things women tend to handle in their households. “We’re the ones filling the minivan up," she said.

The first step in solving a problem is admitting you have one. For the Republican Party, the first step also seems to be the final one. The GOP faces the same problem here as they do with the rest of their rebranding efforts — they aren’t at all interested in listening. An authoritarian party to the core, they seem to believe they don’t have to listen to women’s concerns. Instead, they try to dictate to women what concerns women have.

Another rookie mistake, [Republican pollster Kellyanne] Conway said, is focusing too much on “women’s issues," if such a thing exists. Democratic women, she said, put too much of an emphasis on abortion, while Republican women have the opportunity to take a broader view. “There are very few Democratic women who can begin or finish a sentence without mentioning a ‘woman’s right to choose,’ " Conway said, noting that she’s actually had her researchers go through hours of remarks by Democratic members to find a single woman who failed to mention abortion. They haven’t found one yet. “There is a tremendous opening for the ‘whole women,’ if you will, to step up and run for office as a Republican…. What do you do every week gals, do you fill up the gas tank or do you have an abortion?" she said.

Yeah, I seriously doubt that she couldn’t find any Democratic woman who’s ever talked about anything other than abortion. And taking a “there’s no such thing as women’s issues" line doesn’t strike me as the best way to win women voters. But my biggest takeaway here is that she’s basically telling women, “You don’t care about abortion." Which, if your party is currently engaged in trying to eliminate abortion, you really have to hope is true.

As it is with minority outreach, the Republican message to the target voters here is “We don’t have to change, you do." I doubt women will find that especially compelling. As Taylor Marsh points out in a post about this outreach project, this is all about Hillary 2016. She writes that Republicans “don’t have one single viable female contender to take on Hillary Rodham Clinton, with the congressional bench slim compared to the Democratic women waiting in the wings: Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Kirsten Gillibrand." And about that “whole woman" idea that looks beyond the right to choose:

[T]he Republican war against entitlements, specifically Social Security, hurts females more than any other group. There isn’t a bigger champion for women’s economic rights than Hillary, with the Republican version having only a platform of “reforming” entitlements so that older women have a financial burden they can’t meet as they age.

If Republicans want to win with women, they’re going to have to change. Swinging a watch in front of female voters and saying, “You are getting sleepy and you don’t care about no ‘bortions," just isn’t going to cut it.

[photo via johnscotthaydon]

Wisconsin Gov. Walker joins War on Women

ThinkProgress: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has thrown his support behind an anti-abortion measure that’s currently moving through the state legislature, saying he will sign the bill into law if it makes it to his desk. SB 206 would require women to undergo an ultrasound before getting an abortion — which would mandate an invasive transvaginal probe for some of the women who seek early abortions in their first trimester — and force one of the state’s last abortion clinics to close its doors.

“I don’t have any problem with ultrasound,” Walker told reporters on Tuesday in Milwaukee. “I think most people think ultrasounds are just fine.”

Forced ultrasound bills mandate a medically unnecessary procedure that would otherwise be left up to the discretion of a woman and her doctor. Medical experts, including the largest national group representing thousands of OB-GYNs across the country, are opposed to this type of legislation because they say it interferes with their work and compromises their relationships with patients. “All of a sudden, the Senate is full of doctors,” Wisconsin Sen. Tim Cullen (D) said in reference to SB 206's advancement.

You know, I would very much like Scooter to explain to me exactly what it is that women supposedly don’t know about their pregnancies. What new information would an ultrasound give them? What bit of ignorance about their own bodies is this supposed to clear up? Be specific please: just how incredibly stupid do you anti-choicers believe that women are?

The truth is that they’re simply a roadblock to getting an abortion; just one more hoop to jump through, in the hopes that some women will think it’s not worth the effort. In short, the explanation for why this unnecessary procedure should be required are lies. As always, the most fanatically religious among us are the biggest liars and the least trustworthy Americans.

Of course, this is just Walker’s way of shoring up his conservative bona fides before a possible presidential run. He’s hoping that attacking women will excite the base enough to look past his inexcusably gross economic incompetence. But if we’ve learned one thing in recent years, it’s that this War on Women stuff may get you through the GOP primaries, but that this level of extremism will keep you out of the White House.

And thank goodness for that. Scott Walker is unfit to lead a sing-along, let alone a nation.

[photo via Wikimedia Commons]

Former GOP campaign staffer busted for waging his own personal War on Women

Raw Story: A former intern for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was arrested Tuesday over an alleged sexual extortion scheme.

In a press release, the FBI said 21-year-old Adam Savader allegedly stalked 15 different women from three states between May 2012 and this past February.

The New York Daily News reported that Savader was a political science major at SUNY Farmingdale. He had worked on the political campaigns of Newt Gingrich, Paul Ryan, and Romney.

Savader claimed to have nude photos of the women, and threatened to release the photos unless they sent him more. He demanded that one woman answer “a series of personal questions, relating to sexual preferences, positions, etc.,” according to a FBI complaint. He also informed at least two women that he was masturbating to their stolen pictures.

“I swear on all that is holy. If you fuck with me again I will send these to your parents. I have no problem sending them to ur [sic] parents, friends and sorority sisters unless you cooperate by answering me,” he allegedly told one woman.

Some of the victims attended the same high school as Savader, according to the complaint.

The fact that Savader had also worked for Paul Ryan and Newt Gingrich says a lot. It’s pretty obvious that his little game here was about satisfying his sexual fetish for exerting control over women — which makes campaigning for Romney, Ryan, and Gingrich sort of a natural choice.

Happy International Women’s Day from the War on Women party!

This message brought to by the proud makers of forced ultrasound laws, crazy-assed rape theories, and the idea that women who use contraception are sluts.

Remember, Reince Priebus sez: “You go girls!… Just not very far.”

Winning over women voters: you’re doing it wrong

Raw Story:

A bill introduced by nine Republican state lawmakers in Iowa on Wednesday would define abortion as “murder,” sending doctors and raped women who terminate pregnancies to jail.

State Rep. Tom Shaw says that he authored House File 138 to protect human life, whether “you’re a zygote, an infant, a teenager or an adult.”

The bill defines a “person” as “an individual human being, without regard to age of development, from the moment of conception, when a zygote is formed, until natural death.”

“Murder includes killing another person through any means that terminates the life of the other person including but not limited to the use of abortion-inducing drugs,” the measure states without making any exceptions for rape or incest.

Republican state Rep. Rob Bacon, who is co-sponsoring the bill, told the Ames Tribune that he wanted to “protect the life of the unborn” because “[t]here’s still some of us that believe life begins at conception.”

Remember, Republicans are totally different now, so women are encouraged to flock to the party. How are they different? Well, don’t you worry your pretty little head over that. Just remember that the GOP has a big tent and the only price of admission is a kick in the head — provided you’re not a white male. They still get in for free.