Rick Santorum's money man (well, the Santorum Super-PAC's money man) sent liberal women to their fainting couches during an appearance on MSNBC.
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s big mega-donor kicked up a controversy over the issue of contraception today when he urged a return to the good old days when gals had a simple solution for it: aspirin between the knees.
We’re not kidding.
Wealthy entreprenuer Foster Freiss, who’s backed Santorum’s Super-PAC, made the statements to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell today, after being asked if his candidate has expressed some extremist views on contraception.
He appeared to express wonder that women even have to worry about the issue of paying for contraception these days, Politico reports. “On this contraceptive thing, my Gosh it’s such [sic] inexpensive,” he added. “You know, back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraception. The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.
Lost amid all the bogus outrage was that Freiss was telling a joke, admittedly a tacky one, but a joke nonetheless. Also lost, because everyone on the left is desperate to ignore it, was Freiss's main point that the question of a putative contraceptive "ban" is as absurd now as it was when George Stephenopolis first flummoxed Mitt Romney with this issue last month.
“Aren’t we going back decades with some of the social issues that he’s espoused?,” she said.
Freiss was unfazed.
“Who cares?” he shot back. “Do you honestly think that if Senator Santorum becomes president, we’re going to get rid of contraceptives?”
“I’m amazed at some of the approaches that [you] come up with,” he added. “I think the media has created this ‘extremist’ idea.”
Liberals in and out of the media love this issue because they think it's the quickest way to get precious independents to become convinced that Republicans want to bad all forms of sexual pleasure. Back in the swingin' Nineties (when presidents were receiving BJ's instead of watching them), Dems raised this sort of thing to an art, such that any deviation from the feminist line would be met with full bore "Year Of The Woman" dudgeon.
Now? I'm not so sure this stuff works as well. Santorum gets asked all the time whether he is going to "ban" this or that, and he always meets these questions with laughter and a joke...because the question is a joke. Same with Freiss. 20 years ago there would have been calls for Santorum to disavow Freiss and refuse to accept any more $$ from him. I'm not hearing similar calls now, and if there were any I think Santorum and Freiss wouldn't think twice about ignoring them. If asked, Santorum can go on at length about how Griswold was wrongly decided, about Catholic doctrine, and about the moral dimensions of contraception use. But that's a far cry from trying to "ban" contraceptives as president.
On the other hand, look at the smug certitude of Obama, Sibelius, Pelosi, et al. They are enjoying this controversy, even as they make a big show of "accommodating" the Catholic bishops. Part of their smugness comes from their certitude that the public debate as it plays out in the news media will be in their favor because journalists, like left-wing politicians, are long practiced at presenting these issues in as one-sided a way as possible. But they are also smug because they are absolutely convinced that they are in the right, and the objections of the Rick Santorums of the world are ludicrously wrong. Yet, it is Santorum who has the light touch, even as he presents the multi-facets of a complicated issue.
What a world where now the humorless scolds are the liberals, and the witty nuanced thinkers are the conservatives.
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