Posted on 03/02/2012 12:39:54 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The president clearly thinks it’s advantageous to keep conservatives preoccupied with his contraception mandate because he sure ensures the topic stays in the spotlight. Today, he did that with a rare personal phone call to Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown law student who earlier this week testified in support of the mandate by saying that she and her peers are “going broke” to buy birth control.
In response to Fluke’s congressional testimony, radio host Rush Limbaugh called the Georgetown coed a “slut” and a “prostitute.” With those comments, he touched off a larger controversy. The DCCC and Emily’s List raised funds off Rush’s comments, while Congressional Democrats immediately demanded that Republican leadership disavow his words. House Speaker John Boehner did so tepidly, calmly calling Limbaugh’s remarks “inappropriate,” while also condemning any attempt to use his provocative rhetoric as a fundraising tool.
Today, Obama decided to weigh in, as well, calling Fluke to praise and encourage her and to say her parents should be proud of her activism.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said, “The president called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke because he wanted to offer his support, express his disappointment, that she was the subject of an inappropriate personal attack and thank her for exercising her rights as a citizen to speak out on public policy.”
Carney said they spoke “for several minutes. It was a good conversation. Like a lot of people said the personal attacks directed her way are inappropriate. The fact that political discourse has become debased in many ways is bad enough. It’s worse when directed at a private citizen simply expressing her views on a matter of public policy.”
Asked what Obama thought about Limbaugh’s comments, Carney said, “They were reprehensible. They were disappointing. It is reprehensible that those kinds of personal and crude attacks could be leveled at someone like this young law school student who was simply expressing her opinion on a matter of public policy and doing it with a great deal of poise.”
Fluke also relayed the substance of the call to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. (Incidentally, Fluke might not be the wide-eyed, 23-year-old she purports to be; sounds like she had the intention to raise this issue before she ever enrolled at Georgetown.)
Rush brushed aside the president’s phone call.
Amid his reaction though, Rush makes a great point. He says that he has been asked why he was so insulting to Fluke. He responded by making the point that his whole “free contraception” movement, on top of the “rich aren’t paying their fair share” movement is highly insulting to him. He likened it to a woman he didn’t know knocking on his door asking for money for contraception because she wanted to go and have sex with 3 guys that evening. Rush explains:
“Where is it written that when all of a sudden if you want something and don’t have the money for it, somebody else has to pay for it. I think the whole notion of being insulted here – there are a lot of us insulted by this whole idea that is growing throughout the Obama administration, that the people who make this country work are somehow doing their fair share, not paying their fair share, that we have to be punished even more. Here’s the latest example of it.”
Of course he ends the segment by suggesting, tongue-in-cheek, that he is waiting for Bill Clinton to call Sandra Fluke to see if she’s OK. Ha!
Dare I suggest that, somewhere along the line, this has gotten a bit — to borrow a word from Ron Paul — “silly“? Don’t misunderstand me: The contraception mandate is very, very serious. As conservatives have said from Day One, it represents an unconscionable assault on religious freedom. Similarly, sexual morality is a very serious issue. But this has become nothing more than a top-my-trauma contest, in which both sides attempt to make it sound as though they’ve been more seriously insulted than the other side.
Let’s not forget who started all of this. Nobody ever threatened to take away anybody’s contraception. Nobody (except George Stephanopoulous) was even talking about contraception until the administration reiterated its mandate to religiously-affiliated employers to provide insurance coverage that covers contraception against their religious beliefs.
The president knew what he was doing when he made the contraception mandate the first detail of Obamacare to be truly “felt.” He was willing to risk that it would rouse religious leaders because he knew it would rouse those who would perceive opposition to the mandate as a threat to consequence-free sex. It’s not — with or without the mandate, any two consenting adults are free to have sex and with contraception as much as they can afford – but don’t tell Sandra Fluke that. To her and to others like her, sex is apparently not consequence-free unless it’s also flat-out “free” for the folks having it.
The best bet for conservatives is to try — somehow — to rise above this fray and to espouse a higher, better way. That necessarily entails advocating conscience protections for religious employers and patiently, repeatedly explaining that contraception is widely accessible and affordable, but not a medical necessity. It might also entail (and I duck as I write this) the willingness to love women (and men!) by inviting them to lives as something other than moochers who can’t see past their own desires for instant gratification. “Hey, kids, try a life of personal responsibility and earned success! You might like it!”
This girl is exactly what I don’t want to happen to my daughter. She is brainwashed by the left to believe she should be hooking up whenever and wherever she feels like. Then later she’ll cry to her mother that the boys just don’t want to make a commitment. How stupid.
This girl is exactly what I don’t want to happen to my daughter. She is brainwashed by the left to believe she should be hooking up whenever and wherever she feels like. Then later she’ll cry to her mother that the boys just don’t want to make a commitment. How stupid.
Here’s David Letterman on The Top 10 things Sarah Palin did for her trip to New York (See Item 2).
Top Ten Highlights Of Sarah Palin’s Trip To New York
10. Visited New York landmarks she normally only sees from Alaska
9. Laughed at all the crazy-looking foreigners entering the U.N.
8. Made moose jerky on Rachael Ray
7. Keyed Tina Fey’s car
6. After a wink and a nod, ended up with a kilo of crack
5. Made coat out of New York City rat pelts
4. Sat in for Kelly Ripa. Regis couldn’t tell the difference.
3. Finally met one of those Jewish people Mel Gibson’s always talking about
2. Bought makeup from Bloomingdale’s to update her “slutty flight attendant” look
1. Especially enjoyed not appearing on Letterman
Condoms are say 50c each...that's 6000 condoms....
52 weeks a year...less 2 weeks for vacations...
That's 120 condoms a week...
I rest my case (no pun intended)
Must have to tie a 2x4 across your ass so you dont fall in.
Condoms are say $1.00 each
Sex more than 7 times a day? Boys that won't even chip in for a condom once in a while? Goes to a "Catholic" school that costs upwards of $40,000 per year. Calling her a slut is an insult to sluts everywhere. She is a sexaholic if nothing else and could do well with a 12 step program rather than another day on her back. Yup! Her parents MUST be proud. She is a true Marxist model for the generation to follow.
You asking me or Letterman?
If it this had happened on Billy Clintoon’s watch he’d have offered her an internship AND a cigar!
She is going to mess around and catch something that penicillin won't cure and that will be the end of her party time anyway. There is some very nasty stuff going around, to say nothing of HIV, and drug resistant strains are increasing rapidly.
You can't look at someone and tell what infection they are carrying, the risk is spread all across the social spectrum.
Kids tend to judge by appearance, and that doesn't work.
Did he call the families of the two soldiers killed yesterday? This inquiring mind wants to know.
I went to a Jesuit College and they generally were strong on critical analysis. Wonder if they still teach Ethics and Religion. Everyone had to take Ethics and other philosophy related subjects but if you were non-Catholic you did not have to take Religion.
Those Ethic classes must be humdingers nowadays. Wonder what the current take on Abortion is.
Cheers!
Yes, B. Hussein Soetero and her parents must be very proud of the slut, er...law student she has become.
Maybe she’s counting one or two abortions as “contraceptives.”
She’s so loose that you’d have to stick your head in, wiggle your ears and throw up just to make her think you did anything to her.
Her new nickname should be “the Grand Canyon”.
She combines her academic and "extracurricular" activities...she's doing each of her professors after class.
“So she spends $3000 a year on birth control”
There is no way she is having that much sex, unless she is keeping her feet warm in the side pockets at the local billiards hall...... Even then...no.
Fluke better keep her day job cause her night job can’t be paying to well...ikes
She will do good as a poster child for pro-government contraceptives..one look at her and you are ready to be celibate for life.
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