Heavens - and still so many months to go

IF YOU'RE LIKE ME, you're having a harder time each day understanding the social and religious conservatives on matters like breast cancer and abortion. For example, there's a Republican state senator in Tennessee - Stacey Campfield, by name - who swears that abortions cause breast cancer. (He swears about a lot of other things, too, such as the unrefined evils of homosexuality and AIDS, which he claims began when a man "screwed a monkey". Campfield is further proof that our electoral system's safety net has holes in it.)

Anyway, I coughed up Stacey Campfield when I read a similar version from the GOP's current hallowed rock star, Rick Santorum, who could win the party's nomination by default. But I don't want to say more about that at this time. Rather, McRick has clearly suggested to the Fox News gang that, indeed, abortions cause breast cancer. It was his way of supporting the Komen foundation's defunding of Planned Parenthood, a decision that caused Komen a triple-Excedrin headache that wasn't relieved when the foundation reversed itself.

On matters of his committed Catholic faith, you must understand that he's the real thing who opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest . He is, of course, entitled to that view, but you could say the same about the great majority of folks who are entitled to a less Draconian view.

So are we going to have to suffer the path of the most theocratic major candidate in our lifetime all the way to the Republican convention? I'm afraid so.

PS: Considering all of the local media fuss over Santorum's scheduled visit to Akron Saturday, I continue to acknowledge my losing battle by asking: What do Santorum, McMitt Romney, McNewt Gingrich and McRon Paul have in common with Abraham Lincoln? Very little, if anything. But they do show up for the Lincoln Day dinners, misnomers that any sponsor would be hard-pressed to defend, particularly this year when the GOP field has done its damnedest to cheapen the party of Lincoln's name.

Kasich rambles; Komen in shambles

WEDNESDAY MORNING WASH:

From what I saw of Gov. Kasich's unscripted, unrehearsed rambler that was bravely called the State of the State message, he could have saved Ohioans the expense of luring all of his GOP fellow travelers to Steubenville. It betrayed the setting of Wells Academy, a top rated school chosen to highlight achievement. As is his wont, the governor spoke of a new day in Ohio, sort of. (The Plain Dealer, which usually gives Kasich the benefit of any doubt, observed in the headline for its editorial that the 90-minute oration was "stirring, but vague". That's awfully close to a non-sequitur, folks.)

For all of the huff-and-puff, the governor remains deep in negative territory with the Buckeye electorate. The new Public Policy Polling survey shows Kasich trailing Ted Strickland, the ex-Democratic governor, in a speculative rematch by 20 points, 53-33. But Kasich still has nearly three years remaining in his term so the number merely suggests that the governor's low poll number is strong evidence of buyer's remorse. And with the Ohio Primary on March 6, it will be interesting to see how many of GOP presidential candidates will want a photo-op with the governor.

* * * * *

Speaking of those presidential candidates, Rick Santorum, who seems at time to be running for the papacy, pulled off a hat trick - the sports term for a players scoring three goals in hockey - in Tuesday night's caucuses. The turnout was dismal, or as poet e.e. cummings once put it, the "sound of one hand clapping". Clearly there are no rock stars in the GOP's quartet.

I once referred to them as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I must now change that to the Four Muleteers.

* * * * *

Will the fallout from Komen's political disaster ever stop? The resignation of its leading politician, Karen Handel, to the rigging of Komen's decision (later reversed) to defund Planned Parenthood seemed to settle the source of Komen's problem. Yet there are still denials, particularly among right-to-life advocates, that the premeditated politically inspired severance from Planned Parenthood had anything to do with it - despite evidence to the contrary. This episode was another harsh reminder that there are countless land mines under foot when religion merges with politics. It didn't have to be, but we now see the consequences.

The troubling return of Ari Fleischer

IT WAS A STROKE of fortune that the Komen Foundation's land mine exploded into a national issue. We can now be dramatically reminded how recklessly invasive politics can stain a highly respected foundation long known for its dedication to fighting breast cancer. It was a hit job on Planned Parenthood that left Komen founder Nancy Brinker falsely improvising damage control by declaring that politics was not involved. All of the evidence, we now know, pointed in the opposite direction.

As I wrote earlier, the political right has been targeting Planned Parenthood for extinction for years, literally changing its name to "the nation's largest abortion provider" - an epithet of bumper sticker potential. The assault reached the boiling point with a right-wing congressman launching a lame investigation, and the recent hiring of a Komen senior vice president - a woman who failed as a Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate. Her resume doubtless included her long declared animosity toward Planned Parenthood.

Now, the plot thickens as muck with a report by Think Progress that her influential new post with Komen was expedited by Ari Fleischer, former president George Bush's press secretary. (Alas, we can never fully escape the dead-enders from the Bush years.)

Fleischer, a personal foe of PP, interviewed the candidates for Komen "senior vice president for Communications and External Relations", and "drilled" them on what they would do about Planned Parenthood. It was hardly a surprise that Ari's work led to Karen Handel, the conservative Georgia pol.

So if mighty clashes must determine winners and losers, Planned Parenthood received $3 million in fresh contributions within a week from donors offended by Komen's decision to cut it off. Komen lost some of its loyal donors , and Brinker, who had worked so honorably for 30 years in behalf of her foundation's breast cancer grants , was suddenly caught in a miserable situation.

Komen's decision to reverse itself predictably outraged some conservatives, including National Review, which blamed the "retreat" on left-wing "gangsterism". What loose talk!

C'mon. Komen was living in relative peace before now. It's a shame the right-wing pols moved in to claim it as a battering ram. It's not a shame that Planned Parenthood handily won the round. The melee offers PP's opponents a bitter lesson for not considering the rule of unintended consequences. You'd think that at least Ari Fleischer would know that by now.

Komen says it's not about politics. Oh?

SINCE ENDING ITS support of Planned Parenthood, the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure has been spinning its reason as a simple act of playing by its rules. In short, the Komen leaders insist that politics has nothing to do with its decision. That quickly recalls Seinfeld's George Costanza's excuse that "it's not a lie if you believe it."

Until now Komen has worked closely and nobly with Planned Parenthood in helping to fund breast cancer screenings. However, it has been no secret that anti-abortion groups have been trying to destroy Planned Parenthood with their congressional surrogates, wrongly accusing PP of providing abortions with massive federal funds. If you follow the sequence of how this latest monstrous event came about, check this:

(1)In April 2011, Karen Handel, losing runoff Republican candidate for Georgia governor in 2010 (endorsed by Mitt Romney and Jan Brewer!) became senior vice president of Komen, continuing her pro-life campaign stance to rid Komen of Planned Parenthood

(2).In September, Rep. Cliff Stearns, the anti-abortion congressman from Ocala, Fla., announced that his subcommittee would investigate Planned Parenthood, demanding all of the foundation's records and those of all of its affiliates..

(3)Not long afterward, Komen rewrote its rules and denied funding to any organzation being "investigated" in Congress, while rewarding Stearns and the pro-lifers.

(4)Komen announces that it would have no further dealing with Planned Parenthood and even rejected any appeals for further discussion by the latter.

(5)Komen releases a formal statement, saying: "Grant-making decisions are not about politics - our priority is and always will be the women we serve. Making this issue political or leveraging it for fundraising purposes would be a disservice to women."

(6) Political and religious conservatives shouted "Yippee". Tony Perkins, the oft-quoted president of the Family Research Council, said it was about time that Planned Parenthood stop making a profit from abortions - which, of course, works for the Family Council's anti-abortion profit-making game.

(7)Not about politics? Make me laugh.

P.S. Planned Parenthood has received more than $400,000 in fresh contributions since Komen put a hit on it. You can add to that amount. I just did.

UPDATE: Now make that $650,000!