Um, gee, guys, maybe this War on Women isn't such a good idea. (dsb nola/
flickr)
John McCain doesn't exactly have a reputation for being a stalwart defender of women's rights.
He never met an anti-woman law he didn't fully support—including the recently failed Blunt amendment to protect employers from being sad that their vagina-possessing employees use health care—and his most compelling reason for putting Sarah Palin on his vice presidential short list was because a half second of Googling by his 2008 campaign confirmed her primary qualification: XX chromosomes.
Still, even John freakin' McCain can see the writing on the wall:
GREGORY: Do you think that there is something of a war on women among Republicans?
McCAIN: I think we have to fix that. I think that there is a perception out there because of how this whole contraception issue played out — ah, we need to get off of that issue, in my view. I think we ought to respect the right of women to make choices in their lives and make that clear, and get back onto what the American people really care about.
Aw, shucks, John. That's so darned sweet of you to take the radical view that women should have the right to make their own choices. And gosh, it sure is so bold and mavericky of you to
now take issue with the way "this whole contraception issue played out." Too bad you didn't have a problem with it before you cast your vote to protect employers' "right" to interfere with women's health care.
With polling continuing to show just how disastrous it is for the Republican Party to wage war on women's health care, and with reports that even Republican women are considering voting against their party in November, it's no wonder that some Republicans are realizing what a mistake their war is. Not the Republicans running for president, of course. They're still clueless as ever.
But when even John McCain is saying his party has gone too far, you know Republicans must be feeling pretty nervous about just how badly their war is backfiring. And you know what? Good.