The latest uproar coming from the
crazypants tag team of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and the evangelical right has honed in on the Obama administrations requirement that religiously affiliated hospitals and colleges have to cover birth control in insurance plans they offer. Bishops, backed up by evangelical foot soldiers, screamed about the imposition caused by this attack on religious freedoms. Despite the fact that very few of the Catholic fold support the Church's position on contraception (or masturbation, or sex for pleasure, et al.), the ruckus was enough to get the administration to walk back from their position, but not enough to satisfy the Church hierarchy. This is not at all surprising considering that this is a battle that U.S. Bishops have been
planning on for awhile.
Some commentators, such as
Andrew Sullivan, believe that the U.S. Bishops, with the evangelical right hanging on to their cassock tails, have committed a great overreach. Much of the right, including some of the establishment, vehemently disagree and continue to screech about attacks on religion; I, however, fall wholeheartedly in Sully's camp
surprise surprise. First and foremost, the Church cites moral authority when bringing down their ecumenical hammer on the use of contraception, or any type of sexual activity not for procreation. Call me crazy, but I do not think the Church has
much capital when it comes to the boudoir. Let me know when the Church makes a full throated apology, that resounds from Pope Benedict on down, about the worldwide sexual abuse of the least powerful of their flock. That is just step 1. Second, the position they have chosen has almost no support. The fact that this is coming during the GOP primaries means that the Church is, probably quite literally, preaching to the choir. The party most likely to be against such moves, single white women, is a likely independent group that either party will need to win over to win. Smooth move on that one evangelical right.
The enormity of the miscalculation is playing out right now. Despite what some on the right are deluding themselves into believing, Rick Santorum is very much not electable. At least not in the general election. Due to that fact, however, he shouldn't be the current leader of the GOP primaries
unless they are desperate to lose. However, the contraception issue, and the highlight of social issues over economic that it has caused, has propelled Santorum to heights that he would not previously have dreamed of just a month ago. And, in Michigan, the joke is quite literally on them yet they don't seem to realize it. The
Daily Kos has asked Michigan Democrats, who are allowed to vote in the Republican primary, to vote for Santorum to help him win and help take Romney out. Further, and much more hilariously,
Santorum has embraced this move; respectability be damned! According to Talking Points Memo:
It’s a controversial tactic. Bill Ballenger, a longtime Michigan politico and the editor of
Inside Michigan Politics, spoke with TPM about the call earlier in the day. He said the call piqued his interest because it sounded like it could have come from a union targeting Romney ahead of the Feb. 28 primary. The call focuses on Romney’s opposition to the auto bailout and calls on Democrats to vote for Santorum Tuesday because of it.
“It went on and on like this and I kept listening because I kind of smelled a rat,” Ballenger said. “And finally at the very end, in a tagline it says, ‘this call was paid for by the Santorum for president committee.’
If I was a Republican, I'd probably be crying into my Vatican approved Wheaties and doing some
Opus Dei style self-flagellation right now. I style myself a moderate, was feeling Huntsman a bit, but the state of the GOP since I came of voting age has prevented me from having any sane choice rather than the Dems.
#Team Obama. (with a Sully hat tip).
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