The biggest accomplishment of RNC chair Reince Priebus
has come to light and—surprise!—it's not outreach to new demographics like minorities, single women, and young people. Drumroll please …
He told radio host Hugh Hewitt Tuesday night that his most important achievement is “taking control of the presidential primary debate process” for 2016.
And by "taking control," what he really means is, limiting the number of tough questions that get asked of Republican candidates by "nefarious" journalists like Chris Matthews. Or here's how reporter David Weigel
puts it:
Ever since Mitt Romney's 2012 defeat, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has promised to protect future candidates from the "circus" of embarrassing presidential debates.
To that end, Priebus scored a big coup by ensuring that Hewitt, a conservative journalist, will take the lead in asking questions at CNN's Republican debate on Sept. 16.
But that's not all: Weigel's piece included an illuminating interview with Hewitt about what he would and wouldn't ask at that debate and why. Take birth control, for instance—Hewitt's not asking.
Hewitt: There wasn't one conservative in 2012 who wanted to make birth control inaccessible to women. Not one. Zero. And so when George Stephanopoulos asked about birth control in New Hampshire, I thought it summed up very nicely the problem with using even good journalists like him, a former Clinton operative. That question would never come from a conservative journalist. It's not a debate. It doesn't exist.
Hmm, how about that
Hobby Lobby ruling, Hewitt? Wonder how many GOP candidates would distance themselves from that big conservative win for religious "freedom"? Because that's exactly what the decision does—make birth control less accessible to women by
suggesting that birth control devices actually cause abortions.
Head below the fold to find out what is important to Hewitt, since birth control doesn't make the cut.
In fact, that's exactly what conservatives are trying do—blur the line between contraception and "abortifacients," a fancy term for something that induces an abortion. Hewitt apparently doesn't get this, but an entire voting bloc of the Republican party is devoted to exactly that—limiting access to birth control.
How about this for a question to Republicans: Do you think IUDs are a form of birth control?
Hewitt's response to Weigel demonstrates exactly what's wrong with conservatives: Tiny details like "What qualifies as birth control?" are irrelevant to them. It's a women's issue—and those don't count in a Republican primary.
Here's what does count:
Hewitt: One question would be about the status of our nuclear forces, which are in decline. People need to find out about the fact that all of our nuclear submarines are going to age out in the next 20 years, and we don't have a line item to replace them. I think that the number of aircraft carriers, the fact that former Secretary Hagel said we might need to go down to eight, is very stunning. I think Republican candidates ought to know well the peace through strength doctrine.
Right, there's no line item in the government budget (i.e. funding) to build more nuclear submarines. That matters, but not birth control.
Don't get me wrong, progressives and conservatives alike are probably interested in knowing how many resources a candidate plans to devote to improving the nation's war capabilities.
But the idea that somehow conservatives aren't for limiting access to birth control displays an incredible ignorance about the subject. Conservative journalists may not be interested in that question, but the notion that asking it is a waste of time is ludicrous.