The GOP and Catholic Bishops' Slow Contraception Suicide

With poll after poll showing majority support for the inclusion of contraception in prescription drug coverage, Republicans and the Catholic bishops continue on an offensive against Barack Obama - and ultimately women. In the House of Representatives hearings, the GOP set the stage to look hostile to women but totally tone deaf as well as no woman was allowed to even testify as a witness on the issue of the contraception coverage mandate. Witnesses were limited to out of touch men and a nasty Santorum supporter who defined the contempt toward women having control over their own bodies. One can only hope that we are watching a slow form of political suicide. Yes, the Kool-Aid drinkers of the Christianist set eat this stuff up, but for everyone else, it should be a lesson as to why the GOP needs to be removed from power. Here are highlights from the Washington Post:

Tempers flared on Capitol Hill on Thursday as lawmakers waded into an increasingly heated debate over the mandated coverage of contraceptives under the nation’s new health-care law.

Several Democrats walked out of a House hearing on the provision, accusing Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) of blocking testimony from a female witness who supports the mandate.

The stormy hearing — and a comment from a key supporter of Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum that quickly drew fury — provided further evidence of how the issue remains political dynamite despite the Obama administration’s efforts to reach a compromise.

Foster Friess, the Santorum backer, told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Thursday that he favors an “inexpensive” form of birth control — abstinence. “You know, back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraception,” he said. “The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.”

Women’s groups denounced Friess’s remarks. “Birth control is basic health care and used almost universally by women,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood. “It is not something to belittle on national TV.”

“The issue here is forcing the church to provide [contraceptives] directly or indirectly in contravention of the Church’s teachings,” said William E. Lori, who chairs the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’s Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty. “That’s what we don't want to do. It’s one thing when tax dollars pay for it; it’s another when church dollars do.”

Of course, it's not "church dollars" that would be paying for coverage at Catholic hospitals and universities few of which are funded by the Church and all of which operate as businesses in competition with other universities and hospitals. Andrew Sullivan remains dumbfounded by the insanity of both the GOP and the Catholic bishops who are swimming against the will of the majority. Here are some highlights:

It's hard to believe that the GOP has become so isolated from the American mainstream that they could not find and would not allow a single woman to testify in the Issa hearings today on contraception and religious freedom for Catholic bishops and the small minority of American Catholics who don't agree with birth control on grounds of conscience. I know the GOP doesn't want the debate to be about birth control, even though it obviously is at least in part, but seriously. They couldn't even find a Catholic woman to make the case that this isn't about abortion? Or do any actually exist? And they excluded a Catholic woman representing the majority Catholic view that Obama's compromise was acceptable as a reasonable balance? Whatever else this is, it is not good p.r.

And then to hand the Democrats an opportunity for a walk-out that would only make the issue - especially in TV soundbites - more about contraception than religious liberty? It's political and p.r. malpractice. My view that this is the wedge issue that will finally hurt the GOP has not been disproven today, has it?

Added to Santorum's chief financial backer's simply staggering and disgustingly sexist recommendation that the only birth control a woman should have is crossing her legs - with the implication that straight men have no responsibility for the matter - and we have really returned to the 1950s, . . .

Hence in part, perhaps, Obama's growing popularity among single women, as Greg Sargent notes: After unmarried women dropped off for Dems in 2010 and were slow to return to the Dem fold in 2011, Obama is now approaching the 70 percent he won among them in 2008. He beats Romney now among single women by 65 -30. Only two months ago, it was 54 - 37. Now imagine what the margin would be if Santorum were the nominee.

I continue to hope that the Christianist base of the GOP is about to run the Party off a cliff.