I’ve written extensively on my firmly held belief that the Republicans are waging a war on women. But I’ve been quiet on the recent nonsense about contraception and the Catholic Church, a political wedge issue with no merit other than to drive voters, who might otherwise vote in favor of Democrats, into the desperate arms of some pretty weak Republican presidential candidates.

Yesterday on Meet the Press, Rick Santorum essentially said that all the angst for him was personal, that he’d never support a policy that would deny birth control to women. He claimed to be a good Catholic, who agreed with the teachings of his church.

Yesterday my mail box was filled with posts about Santorum’s hypocrisy during his life, including one post that detailed all of the beliefs of the Catholic Church that Republicans do not support. Most of the E-mails concerned his wife and things that have happened to her in her life. I did not fact check any of them, so forgive me if I am guilty of repeating untruths.

One story, which should have nothing to do with Rick Santorum’s bid for the presidency, claims that Karen Santorum lived with an abortion doctor, many years her senior,  without benefit of marriage. It claims that Karen left the good doctor because she wanted children and Rick was attractive enough as a sperm donor to jettison her belief that abortion might be a necessary procedure at times.

The other story is tragic and can only cause pain to the Santorums when they see it replayed in a presidential campaign.  It claims that Karen Santorum once had a late term abortion that saved her life. Nothing in the story indicates that the Santorums blithely aborted a child. It was a procedure that saved Karen’s life after she became infected by an earlier procedure, which was an attempt to save the life of the fetus.  Nonetheless, the procedure that reportedly saved Karen Santorum’s life is one that many of the out of touch men, including Rick Santorum himself, say they would deny women.

Of course these stories are in the news because Santorum’s star is rising as a GOP candidate for president. Santorum is a Catholic. Catholic Bishops picked a fight with President Obama. Can anyone say wedge issue?

Jonathan Turley blogged today about how all of this is Catholic V. Contraception angst has little to do with the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on a state religion. You should read the entire post yourself, but here are some quotes:

“A black man, accused of being secretly a Muslim, a socialist and an illegitimate pretender to the presidential throne, has accomplished what all of the post-Vatican II reconciliation committees and joint worship services and inter-faith conferences could not.”

“No longer will the Pope be called the Antichrist, nor Holy Mother Church the Whore of Rome. “

“Christians have reunited under the banner of Richard “Coeur de Lion” Santorum to defeat apostasy and reclaim America for Christendom.  The enemy this time?  An HHS regulation requiring most health insurance plans to include FDA approved forms of contraception in coverage for preventive health services.”

“The newest crusade, like its historical predecessors, is largely fueled by the bad faith of its leaders and the ignorance of its foot soldiers.”

“It has never been the law that the First Amendment exempts religion from all civil authority.  The First Amendment “embraces two concepts,-freedom to believe and freedom to act.  The first is absolute but, in the nature of things, the second cannot be.”  Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 303-304 (1940)”

Homework

http://jonathanturley.org/2012/02/13/contraception-and-separation/  

I previously wrote about how I thought that Michelle Bachmann was a better candidate than I was because she understood the political pivot. Intellectually I understand the pivot, but my gut is always to answer the question, so I follow my gut and forget to pivot. This morning on Meet the Press Rick Santorum demonstrated that his pivot is a beautifully executed pirouette.

When David Gregory asked him a question about culture wars, he masterfully delivered his message about economic growth and left the culture wars as a footnote. My reaction to Santorum this morning was much the same as my reaction after his Iowa speech. He has a way of connecting with people that is hand and shoulders above both Newt and Mitt.

Romney has consistently put his foot into the mouth that has spent a lifetime being fed with a silver spoon. Romney is rich, one of the richest men in the world. Romney has always been rich. Despite claiming to be unemployed, Romney has never faced homelessness or going to bed hungry. Romney is not concerned about the poor because he has no idea who they are or how they live.

Gingrich, on the other hand has one position—pissed off. He is mad at the media. He is mad at the other Republican candidates. He is mad at his ex-wifes. His is mad that his third choice for a religion can’t dictate to all women about birth control. Gingrich has burned bridges at every step in his life because he is always pissed off.

Don’t get me wrong, I would never vote for Santorum, but his rising star in the current field of Republican candidates is no fluke. He stays on message. He ducks the culture wars questions by saying that there is a difference between what he personally believes and what public policy should be. John Kerry said the same thing when he ran for president. And he smiles. Santorum is a very attractive candidate—he has a beautiful smile. He stacks the deck by bringing his entire beautiful family on stage with him at the conservative conference where another beauty queen got cheers and standing ovations because she can smile pretty.

What Palin and Santorum have in common is an understanding of how to smile and speak populace language. Mitt always looks like a cardboard cutout because he is uncomfortable around ordinary people, or maybe he is just uncomfortable around TV cameras. A local man told me yesterday that he was impressed with Mitt’s recent visit to Grand Junction because he took the time to speak to the crowd that had gathered outside the meeting room when there wasn’t room for all inside. This man was very complimentary about how Mitt treated one elderly woman during the exchange.

Santorum isn’t going away anytime soon, much to the chagrin of moneyed Republicans.

Homework:

Today’s homework is a post at Jonathon Turley’s blog about the constitutionality of the Obama compromise with the religious groups who want to deny women access to birth control. It includes a link to a segment that aired recently on MSNBC.

Employment Division v. Smith

I had been hearing rumblings about Santorum making a strong showing in Colorado, and it turns out the rumblings were accurate. I remember thinking that Santorum could really connect with people after his speech in Iowa. Given the continuing strength of the Tea Party in Colorado, I’m not surprised that he took Colorado.

This election season has been way too much fun! Last night Santorum cleaned Romney’s clock in three states. I’m sure that Romney will now hit the accelerator on his move to the right. There will be a whole month of no primary contests to check the speed and direction, and the media will telegraph his every move.  The Newt will be moving to the right also, since he is convinced he is destined to be President.

The Komen experience with Planned Parenthood didn’t teach these guys anything. They still think that the loudest voices in the GOP are representative of voters in the general election. But the loudest voices are the fundamentalist Christians in a nation that is increasingly becoming more like Europe, where Church is not a weekly thing and does not dominate the thinking of the people. And then there are those pesky birth control and women’s health issues.

The Catholic Church is going to continue to raise a stink about birth control, and both the media and the GOP candidates are going to listen to them. Why anyone would put a lot of credence in a bunch of guys who hang out mostly with other guys and dress in medieval white, red and black robes while continuing to get caught up in scandals involving sex with altar boys is beyond my comprehension. For sure their own female parishioners are ignoring them when it comes to women’s health, as are many of their nuns.

Santorum, as the latest Anybody-But-Romney candidate, is going to get a lot more media attention, now. His war on birth control will become more widely known, and he will start to fall in the polls. None of the current crop of Republicans seems to remember that Ken Buck was defeated in Colorado because of his war on women. They have even forgotten the recent loss of a Personhood amendment in conservative Mississippi.

Homework

Atheism America Religious Right