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The GOP Is Overmatched: Planned Parenthood hearings prove that Republicans aren't serious
The Federalist ^
| 09/30/2015
| David Harsanyi
Posted on 09/30/2015 7:39:47 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Now, I get that these kinds of hearings are normally a waste of time, but in this instance the GOP had some good reasons to project competence. This is, after all, the issue thats generated so much tension within their party of late. An effective showingsomething resembling a smart prosecutionmight have allayed a bit of the percolating discontent. Yet there they were, facing a CEO whose organization performs vivisections on humans and harvests baby brains, and the best they could do most of the time was alternate between slow-pitching Richards some hangers and ensuring her martyrdom.
Most of the committees Republicans followed Jason Chaffetzs lead in aimless grandstandingwhich, as always, seems to be the purpose of these show trials, anyway. Self-preservation. Others spent their time chastising Richards over finances, demanding she answer questions about market penetration and unit prices.
Ms. Richards, will you send over those figures? Sure. Ill do my best!
If youre arguing about decimal points, Planned Parenthood is winning. Democrats arent concerned about spreadsheets or fungibility, because theyre too busy accusing Republicans of hatching a plot to eliminate pap smears and mammograms for every poor woman in the country.
Republicans brought up Richards compensation, which was fine, as she and the fetus disposal business she manages benefit generously from taxpayer handouts. But bring it up once. Going back to her salary repeatedly becomes badgering, and it means Politico and other media organization can now ignore the most vital parts of the proceedings and headline their pieces, GOP chair attacks Planned Parenthood president’s salary.
Naturally, Democratswho offered a stream of ludicrous assertions themselves; but who can really blame them for doing their job?immediately unsheathed the War on Women canard, accusing the GOP of engaging in misogyny for asking Richards questions. Carolyn Maloney declared, The entire time Ive been in Congress, Ive never seen a witness beaten up and questioned on their salary, even though Maloney was there when CEOspeople who dont subsist on taxpayer fundingwere grilled far worse.
Not that any Republican called her out on it. Republicans, in fact, had no answer for this line of attack other than some tepid protestation. Thats another problem, considering someone like Mia Love, who should be leading the defense on this issue, used her time to inarticulately re-ask a bunch of questions that were already proven to be ineffective.
Its worth pointing out that, unlike most of the GOP members of the committee, Richards actually earns her salary. She exhibits impressive composure and rhetorical discipline, never wandering off her chosen focus for too long, and basically does everything someone like Jim Jordan does not. The Ohio rep looked like he was about to hop over the podium grab her by the arms and demand answers. The optics were horrible, and the trivial gotcha that made him act like a transmuting Bruce Bannerwhether Richards had actually apologized for the video tapes or not was also irrelevant.
He could have tricked Richards into acknowledging she had lied when she said that Planned Parenthood “never claimed” to offer mammograms? That would have taken preparation and research rather than yelling. Republicans never, setting aside all the hysterical parsing of the media, got Richards to admit that Carly Fiorinas comments regarding human fetuses being delivered intact and alive during abortions was irrefutable. How about offering some examples and quotes from real people? Richards got away with pretending she knew nothing about such events. Broadly speaking, we dont even know if Richards believes there should be any gestational limit on abortions. If shes in line with the Democratic Party, she believes abortion should be legal until crowning. That radicalism was never on display. Which is inexcusable.
With the exception of Tim Walberg, none of the representatives made anything close to a compelling moral case for life. They rarely do. They probably cant. This is why Carly Fiorinas powerful statement in the last debate matters, as Rich Lowry points out, especially troublesome for abortion advocates:
Fiorinas electric condemnation of Planned Parenthood has inevitably gotten the attention of the pro-abortion sisterhood. This past weekend in Iowa, protesters chanted and threw condoms at her condoms evidently being the go-to projectile to demonstrate outrage, even though Fiorina had said nothing about birth control. At the same event, a woman accosted Fiorina to ask, ‘How can you as a woman not support our health care?’ In a firm and frank exchange, Fiorina probably left the woman determined never to try that again. ‘Oh, I support your health care,’ the candidate shot back. ‘I dont support butchering babies.’
Chances that anyone is defunding Planned Parenthood are remote, if theres any at all. And, yes, the base often has unrealistic expectations about what Congress can do without the presidency. But if you cant do a better job in these skirmishes, the ones that lay the groundwork for future battles, youre projecting ineptness. Or, in this case, you’re proving it.
If you cant induce the CEO of Planned Parenthood to feel even slightly uncomfortable about defending videos that find her employees talking about humans as if they were commodities, you have the wrong people asking the questions. And since its clear that there was zero coordination and minimal preparation (repurposing some graphs from pro-life groups is hardly work) voters have no reason to believe you their concerns matter very much. The first step to not sucking this bad is acting like you do care, even if we all know youre just engaged in theater.
TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; congress; gop; plannedparenthood
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To: SeekAndFind
The gist of this editorial is spot on.
21
posted on
09/30/2015 8:07:25 AM PDT
by
Fester Chugabrew
(Diversity is Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama sharing the same jail cell.)
To: SeekAndFind
The reason I left the Republican Party on display for all to see.
22
posted on
09/30/2015 8:08:50 AM PDT
by
Arm_Bears
(Biology is biology. Everything else is imagination.)
To: SeekAndFind
Why didn't the committee play any of the videos, particularly # 3, and have her respond to what was edited and what was not correct?
The ones were PP administrators talk about making money off selling baby parts?
23
posted on
09/30/2015 8:12:55 AM PDT
by
TexasCajun
(#BlackViolenceMatters)
To: SeekAndFind
“Chances that anyone is defunding Planned Parenthood are remote, if theres any at all. And, yes, the base often has unrealistic expectations about what Congress can do without the presidency”
The GOP couldn’t even do it with the presidency, because they don’t want to.
They are utterly full of sh*t.
24
posted on
09/30/2015 8:16:17 AM PDT
by
chris37
(heartless)
To: TexasCajun
Why didn’t the committee play any of the videos, particularly # 3, and have her respond to what was edited and what was not correct?
****
The committee could not get the videos for the hearing because of the injunction in CA (Planned parenthood to blame).
Democrats played the “this isn’t fair” card saying the videos should have been there so that they could be criticized.
To: SeekAndFind
“The malice of the wicked is outweighed only by the complacency of the virtuous” Winston Curchill
26
posted on
09/30/2015 8:18:36 AM PDT
by
BobinIL
To: SeekAndFind
It was an unmitigated disaster and they looked like drooling morons.
I’ve tried more cases than I can count. Any trial lawyer here would agree that that moronic grandstanding will convince the jury (the people) of one thing ... that you are a fool and that the Defendant is innocent.
Where have all of the evenly marginally intelligent GOPers gone?
There was a golden opportunity that was not only wasted, ut they gave PP a mountain of ammo and, likely good will from others.
I’ve rarely been more angry.
To: indthkr
Result is pretty much the same.
To: A CA Guy
What happened when the Whig party died.
Can we learn from history?
I watched part of the hearings, PP is so wrong I dont even know where to start.
29
posted on
09/30/2015 8:25:39 AM PDT
by
Uversabound
(Our Military past and present: Our Highest example of Brotherhood of Man & Doing God's Will)
To: Lake Living
This reminds me of the Christian book about men with no souls. Cant remember if it was C.S. Lewis or another write
To: SeekAndFind
The District of Corruption once again proves it has richly earned the title of The Wicked City. It is helpless to even mention a moral argument much less make a compelling case for one.
I'm sure God is not smiling and neither are the rest of us who care about this ongoing horror show.
31
posted on
09/30/2015 8:35:59 AM PDT
by
Gritty
(The question is not will Muslim migrants kill Americans but how many will they kill?-D.Greenfield)
To: elteemike
Yes, that’s the one! Thank all of you that responded!
To: Whenifhow
And then they go off on a tangent of executive salary and expenses.
They needed to stay focused on Christian taxpayers funding abortions and sell there parts to the highest bidder.
I heard PP President claim taxpayer money was used to provide abortions.
.....Right! Just used that money for salaries & to build the buildings and to keep the lights on.
33
posted on
09/30/2015 8:39:37 AM PDT
by
TexasCajun
(#BlackViolenceMatters)
To: SeekAndFind; flaglady47; Maine Mariner; seekthetruth; mickie; pax_et_bonum; Bob Ireland; ...
"The Republicans were deeply incompetent, unprepared, uncoordinated, inexcusably lazy......" etc. etc. and so forth.
The author of the above quote from his article TODAY must be reading Free Republic and surely read my post of early YESTERDAY where I stated in part: "The GOP questioners seemed to have put little thought, preparation or pre-coordinated strategy with each other into their grilling....and their questions were flat, shallow, off-the-mark and unproductive. If their hearts were truly into this hearing you could have fooled me."
Great minds think alike... but he gets paid for the same words as mine, and I don't, LOL.
Leni
To: SeekAndFind
It means Boehner and others are making money on killing babies.
To: TexasCajun
Excellent point. And then take a part piece by piece her responses and justifications. Much like a trial where the jury has to see the evidence of a murder (blood and gore) so that they can be properly educated on the case.
Like all Democrats, she’ll parse and claim its for women’s rights. But play the video again and again. Then, hold her to her responses.
36
posted on
09/30/2015 8:53:35 AM PDT
by
dhs12345
To: Uversabound
Opposition is telling the world those were doctored recordings to make like it was manipulated.
A kfi host was saying that BS this morning. But those wanting to believe in planned parenthood will accept any cover from having to consider themselves trash people.
37
posted on
09/30/2015 9:00:05 AM PDT
by
A CA Guy
( God Bless America, God Bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
To: RIghtwardHo
Ive tried more cases than I can count. Any trial lawyer here would agree that that moronic grandstanding will convince the jury (the people) of one thing ... that you are a fool and that the Defendant is innocent.The problem here is that there is no prosecutor. There is no single person in charge. There is no prosecutorial strategy. It's just a bunch of grandstanding politicians, playing for the TV cameras.
38
posted on
09/30/2015 9:00:29 AM PDT
by
JoeFromSidney
( book, RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY, available from Amazon)
To: SeekAndFind
Is it any wonder then that Trump, Carson, Cruz, and Fiorina are favored by over 70% of Republican primary voters combined? None at all. The revolt is fully underway.
39
posted on
09/30/2015 9:10:29 AM PDT
by
catnipman
(Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
To: SeekAndFind
40
posted on
09/30/2015 10:19:41 AM PDT
by
Ray76
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