Make no mistake. The pro-abortion, feminist left has been manipulating the narrative about the HHS mandate. That is why a piece written by Byron York over the weekend is so important. York explains why Ms. Fluke wasn’t allowed to testify in the first place. The entire affair began as an effort by partisans to spin a congressional hearing about religious liberty into a forum for the oppression of women. It worked.
7 Comments
Paul
well, as I stated elsewhere, the GOP handled this so poorly that it feels almost like an attempt at self-sabotage.
1) There are no women of note that hold the opinion that a mandate on contraception is an attack on religious freedoms? While the liberal blogosphere might have gone nuts on any woman that had testified to that end, they wouldn’t have been able to say that this was a situation where men were making decisions about women.
1a) none of these congressmen had young staffers that would have thought this through?
2) By not letting Fluke speak, they lost the opportunity to try to wipe out the opposition’s arguments.
3) By utilizing arcane procedural rules against the democrats, the democrats were able to pull a fast one (admittedly) and make this look like the one-sided panel that it was.
Their smartest move would have been to let both Lynn and Fluke speak. Lynn is easily discredited as the head of a clearly partisan organization. Fluke would have likely been destroyed in the questioning process. Instead, well, the GOP got what it had to have been expecting all along. There’s no rational reason to think they didn’t see this coming.
Let’s face it, the RNC knows this is a losing position. They know it’s a loser for Santorum, and they know it’s a loser in congressional and senate races. The sooner they can take their lumps on it and tell the religious right that they fought for them, the sooner they can get back to battles that they might have a chance of winning.
Paul
really Denny? what’s in that post that’s worth moderating? Besides common sense of course…
TERRY
I am a sbc member since 1975 and I think I meed to leave this convention . Where are our leaders to rebuke Rush Limbaugh? Are they like the GOP to stand up for what is right? Are they in agreement ? Maybe we should give up our tax exempt status? Seems like we are nothing but a super pac for the GOP!!!!
K Gray
Mr. Burke, the women who testified at the hearing were Allison Dabbs Garrett, senior vice president for academic affairs at Oklahoma Christian University, and Laura Champion, M.D., medical director and physician at Calvin College.
So wherever you got #1 above, it is not true. That lie is all over the Internet.
I wonder how Drs. Garrett and Champion feel about people — beginning former Speaker Pelosi — treating them like ghosts, like they don’t exist or never testified.
What an Orwellian experience.
BTW, read Ms. Fluke’s testimony. She had no personal story to tell; she has relevant credentials, she just told stories she’d heard, most of them about insurance bureaucracy (one late pay, one wrongful denial, one student “assuming” her needs weren’t covered). Usually Congressional testimony involves experts, persons in oversight positions, or someone with an acute personal experience – and these are vetted in advance.
K Gray
correction – she *lacks* relevant credentials
Paul
K Gray – we agree about Ms. Fluke – read what I said – Issa and company would have chewed her up in questioning. They should have just let her speak.
K Gray
Tough call. This hearing was specifically about religious liberty, putting testimony from the “other side of the coin” on this mandate into the record.