Don’t you hate it when those evil liberals use one comment made by a conservative to attack all conservatives? Well, that wasn’t the case here, as much as NewsBusters wants to believe it.
In a January 24 piece, Scott Whitlock had it to just about here with Chris Matthews using a single comment by a conservative figure to frame the entire spectrum as thinking the same way, and he made it clear that this was only of Mike Huckabee’s doing after a speech he gave at the CPAC winter meetings (emphasis theirs):
Chris Matthews played his favorite type of game on Thursday, using the comments of one Republican to generalize the entire conservative movement. This time, the Hardball host pounced on remarks by Mike Huckabee regarding the so-called “war on women.” The former Republican presidential candidate said that Democrats “insult” women by suggesting that they are “helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in” to provide ” prescription each month for birth control.”
From this, Matthews sneered, “And given that, what is it in the Republican DNA that makes them talk as if they’ve never talked with women?” He added, “Why do they speak as if they are the party of cave dwellers who come out of their habitats every four years, say, or so, to grunt something so retro, so awkward, so Cro-Magnon as this?” […]
After highlighting that portion of Matthews’ comments, he added in one more quote:
Matthews paraphrased:
MATTHEWS: Well, let’s translate that for the modern millennium. Female humans shouldn’t want reproductive planning help with their health insurance. To want such a benefit is to admit you are, A, sexually unstoppable and, B, you need government, some Uncle Sugar, to keep you stocked with birth control pills. Didn’t Mike get the memo?
For some reason, Whitlock decided to reference Matthews’ own run in with making foot-in-mouth (and derogatory) comments back in 2008, when he said that the only reason Hillary Clinton has a shot at the presidency was because “her husband messed around.” He received a lot of backlash for that, and rightly so. Whitlock then points out the hosts’ sudden support for the former First Lady, predicting that she’ll become president with a landslide victory in 2016.
Now that those clever attempts at distracting from Huckabee’s clearly anti-woman comments are done with, let’s go back to Whitlock’s remark that one conservative making a statement doesn’t speak for the whole movement.
Of course, Whitlock is ignoring the storied history of the Republican party and conservatives for advocating against the policies that help women. In fact, Republican politicians (local and nationwide) have recently written bills that specifically restrict women’s right on abortion and birth control, all of which occurred within the last few years.
Here are some examples (via The Huffington Post):
- “Arizona Birth Control Bill Penalizes Women For Using Contraception For Non-Medical Reasons“
- “Kansas Abortion Bill Could Raise Taxes On Women Seeking Procedure“
- “Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin Senator, Proposes Law That Declares Single Parenthood Child Abuse“
- “South Dakota Moves To Legalize Killing Abortion Providers“
- “Protect Life Act, Controversial Anti-Abortion Bill, Passes House“
Wait, so what happened? I thought only Mike Huckabee was the one against birth control for women, and also wants to push for extreme anti-abortion. I don’t know… that’s what Scott Whitlock is telling me, so it must be true.
In reality, Mike Huckabee is not alone in feeling this way about women’s rights, and instead, there are Republicans all across the country in several different states, including Republicans in the U.S. Congress, who want to restrict women having abortions and using contraception.
When reading NewsBusters, however, you don’t know anything about these other Republicans. They’re probably too embarrassed to mention the extreme policy ideas of politicians they actually agree with.
In a final interesting twist regarding Huckabee’s view on women and contraception, it also shows what a hypocrite he is.
When Huckabee was Governor of the state of Arkansas, he signed into law a statewide mandate almost identical to the one President Obama signed nationwide. HuffPo’s Laura Bassett explains:
Huckabee signed state legislation in 2005 that required all health insurance plans providing prescription drug coverage to cover contraceptive drugs and devices as well. According to the Arkansas Times, Huckabee’s exemption for religious organizations was actually narrower than the exemption in the Affordable Care Act:
But like the original federal regulation proposed by Obama, the Arkansas law did not exempt church-affiliated hospitals and universities. It exempts only “religious employers” that are nonprofit organizations whose primary mission is “the inculcation of religious values,” and primarily employ people who share the same religion, a standard few Catholic hospitals meet.
Obama’s law requires most employers and insurers to cover contraception in their plans, but it carves out an exemption for religious schools, hospitals and nonprofits in addition to churches.
As Bassett points out, Mike Huckabee even defended the law he signed, stating “‘Religious employers are not required to comply with this policy,’ he said. ‘My position is, and always has been, that religious entities shouldn’t be forced to pay for contraception.’”
So not only is Mike Huckabee a proven hypocrite, but NewsBusters purposefully decides to ignore it, just so they can talk about how mean MSNBC is for calling out a Republican regarding their extreme agenda.
The hypocrisy of conservative blogs, like NewsBusters, and politicians like Huckabee, is so amazing. The funny thing is they probably don’t even know how blatantly deceptive they’re being, and it could be due to their complete ignorance of the facts.
Those things must be a requirement for anyone that works for Brent Bozell.
(h/t to The Young Turks)
