North Carolina Republicans Ramp Up The GOP War Against Women

Above, Rachel Maddow reports on the anti-Choice sneak attack in North Carolina this week. The Republicans in the legislature don't like seeing Texas and Ohio Republicans getting ahead of them in the right-wing anti-women jihad. Most interesting though (at the 4:55 point in the video) was a clip from an election debate when now-Governor Pat McCrory publicly pledged to sign no new abortion restrictions if he were elected. "None," he responded when Laura Leslie, the WRAL Capitol Bureau Chief, asked him point blank, "If you're elected governor what further restrictions on abortion would you agree to sign?" He didn't hem or haw... he just said "none" and set his jaw in place. I guess we can start parsing words like "further," "restrictions," "agree" and "none." After all, Obamabots are trying to redefine the meaning of the word "coup" now that their military puppets have kicked out the legitimately elected president of Egypt, legally obligating Obama to cut off military aid.

Meanwhile, North Carolina singer-songwriter Kitschy de Coeur explains she "wrote this little song today after sitting in the debates for HB 695, which was slipped in to a bill last minute and will severely limit womens' access to reproductive health clinics." Very eloquent:

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DCCC-- No Shame Whatsoever In Exploiting Women

A good case can be made-- should be made-- that conservatives are waging a relentless war against American women and that it has to be stopped by voters at the polls by defeating the Republican Party. The GOP anti-women jihad is out of control in every state where they've seized power and in the U.S. House of Representatives. But the DCCC isn't the organization to make the point, not if anyone is expected to believe it. Here's the e-mail the DCCC sent out to tens of thousands of Democrats this week:

Last night, Republicans rammed through an extreme and unconstitutional bill that bans abortions after 20 weeks.

Republicans continue to bend to the will of their radical, anti-women, right-wing base. We can’t let their lack of backbone translate into a country where women are systematically denied basic rights.

Don’t let Republicans take us back to the 1950s. Join our campaign to defeat Tea Party extremists today.

Because of the great showing last night, we’ve decided to match all donations through the end of the month.

Click here to donate $3, unlock our matching program, and double your impact >>

So far, 8,259 supporters have donated to our Women's Health Rapid Response Fund since we learned of the radical Republican plan last week. That's a good start, but we can't sit back.

Our midyear fundraising deadline is right around the corner, and we need to reach 10,000 donations for the Rapid Response fund to fight back against this reenergized Tea Party base. Will you chip in to help us fight back?

The DCCC was bragging in the Beltway trade papers this week that it had raked in $6.1 million in May, bringing their total for 2013 to $34.1 million. They emphasized that the monthly haul is $700,000 more than the party raised in April and brings the DCCC’s cash on hand to $11 million. What do they do with all that money? Well, of course, as we've explained before, first comes the rake-offs and the nest-feathering. OK, and after that? Do they run campaigns against the misogynistic Republicans setting GOP policy? Oh... never. Last cycle Steve Israel, the DCCC's inept and incompetent chairman, took Republican party leaders like Boehner and Cantor and committee chairs like Paul Ryan, Buck McKeon, John Mica, John Kline, Fred Upton, Darrell Issa, Dave Camp, Mike Rogers, etc absolutely off the table. There are rumors that Israel is rethinking that disastrous policy after being pressured by angry House members and angrier donors. We'll see. But whatever happens, the bulk of the DCCC haul goes to bolster what they call their Frontline candidates-- incumbents who are often so unpopular with Democrats-- generally because they vote with Boehner and Cantor on core issues-- that they can't expect much support from the grassroots.

This year for example, a hefty portion of the cash that donors give the DCCC-- including money raised in the above appeal-- will go to help reelect anti-Choice fanatics Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog/New Dem-NC) and Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT) who actually voted with the Republicans on the very bill the DCCC is whining about. Is that the height of hypocrisy? "Give us money because Republicans voted to kill Choice so we can reelect these two Democrats who also voted to kill Choice." No shame... none whatsoever.

Who remembers Faith No More? What would you give to see Rahm Emanuel, Steve Israel, guitarist Joe Crowley, Steny Hoyer and Debbie Wasserman Schultz getting up on stage and performing the song?




UPDATE From The DCCC

More spam from the DCCC, this time from Executive Director Kelly Ward: "As of 9am, we are $830,000 short of what we need to take on Boehner, Cantor, and the Tea Party Republicans.

"Right now, Republicans are bowing to the Tea Party by passing the most radical anti-choice bill in decades and voting to sabotage Obamacare. They have the power to make the next couple years the least productive in Congressional history.

"The only chance we have to prevent the Tea Party agenda is by calling out their lies, loud and clear, across the country. We need you with us..."

Send money, send money, send money... and no word about the 6 Democrats who voted with the Republicans, let alone the two Dems the DCCC will use the money to help reelection-- you know, the two anti-Choice fanatics who are guilty of the exact crime the DCCC is citing as evidence that you need to contribute to them. If you want to help elect committed PRO-Choice Democrats who will actually fight back against the Republicans-- unlike the DCCC-- then you can do that right here.

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When Did The GOP Become The Party of Unrelenting Misogyny?

Yesterday, crazed woman-hater--and very sick, deranged closet case-- Trent Franks (R-AZ) finally got a bill passed... kind of. Even Republicans found his rape comments so offensive and so dangerous to GOP election prospects that they took him off the case before the vote and put up an anti-Choice woman as the bill's "sponsor," Tennessee crackpot Marsha Blackburn. Franks'/Blackburn's offensive, ugly anti-woman bill would ban abortions after 20 weeks. The exemptions are premised on a Republican ideological psychosis that "women lie" and can't be trusted. It's pure authoritarian, Big Brother-knows-best legislation that targets women in a grotesque and completely un-American way. And it passed. It passed 228-196 in the House, although not before another sick Republican crackpot, Michael Burgess (R-TX), once an Ob/Gyn, went off on a crazy rant about how fetuses start masturbating at 15 weeks and therefore feel pain. (A similar crazy bill, in Arizona, has already been struck down as patently unconstitutional by a federal appeals court.) Women convicted under the Republican law could go to prison for as many as five years.

The DCCC is already rending their garments over the horrible Republicans who voted against women. I would be more likely to believe the depth of their feelings if they moved to cut off the six Democrats who cross the aisle to vote with the Republicans against women, particularly Matheson and McIntyre who will lose their seats without intensive care from the DCCC:

• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
• Dan Lipinksi (IL)
• Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)
• Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog/New Dem-NC)
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
• Nick Rahall (WV)

Six Republicans cross the aisle in the other direction: Charlie Dent (R-PA), Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), Richard Hanna (R-NY), and John Runyan (R-NJ) because the bill was too extreme and Paul Broun (R-GA) and Rob Woodall (R-GA) because the bill wasn't extreme enough. Closet case Aaron Schock (R-IL) was too frightened to vote and hid in the little boy's room.

The White House has already said that were the bill to ever pass the Senate-- there's zero chance of that happening thanks to the defeat last year of anti-woman crusaders Todd Akin (R-MO), Richard Mourdock (R-IN), Connie Mack IV (R-FL), Josh Mandel (R-OH), Denny Rehberg (R-MT), Tom Smith (R-PA), Tommy Thompson (R-WI), Rick Berg (R-ND), and George Allen (R-VA)-- Obama would veto it. “[It] would unacceptably restrict women’s health and reproductive rights and is an assault on a woman’s right to choose. Women should be able to make their own choices about their bodies and their health care, and Government should not inject itself into decisions best made between a woman and her doctor. This bill is a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade and shows contempt for women’s health and rights, the role doctors play in their patients’ health care decisions, and the Constitution."

Going into the vote yesterday, the National Right to Life Committee threatened to oppose any Members of Congress who opposed the bill. Extremist psychopath, John Bircher and Republican Senate candidate Paul Broun (R-GA) promptly announced he would vote NO... because the bill is too liberal.

U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Athens, on Monday night pulled his support for a measure that would ban a woman’s right to abortion after the 20th week of pregnancy, highlighting a split between the foremost national anti-abortion group and its Georgia counterpart.

Language was recently added to the measure that would make exceptions for cases of rape and incest. National Right to Life recognizes those two exceptions.

But Georgia Right to Life does not. Things are about to get nasty.

"Any lawmaker who votes to allow unlimited abortion in the sixth month or later is voting to encourage a continuation of the horrors associated with the likes of Kermit Gosnell," said NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson in a press release that arrive this morning.

Georgia Right to Life has yet to be heard from officially, but on WSB Radio last night, Erick Erickson of Redstate.com reported that GRTL was in the process of phoning members of Congress, urging them to vote against the bill.

The legislation has no chance of becoming law. (A Georgia version already exists and is under court challenge.) But the open split in a Washington scenario has major implications for Georgia’s race for U.S. Senate. Broun is a major contender. Another is former secretary of state Karen Handel, who has fought with GRTL in the past. The organization has refused to certify her as a “pro-life” candidate because of her endorsement of the rape and incest exceptions to abortion regulation.

Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) spoke for all Democrats and non-misogynists when he spoke after the vote yesterday:

“Republicans are once again trying to restrict the rights of American women to make medical decisions. It’s obvious they haven’t listened to the American people in pursuing this unconstitutional waste of time. It’s less obvious who they think they’re serving with this.

“Women who seek these services are often in extreme economic straits or have discovered serious health risks in their pregnancy. In defending the bill, the author said the incidence of pregnancies from sexual violence is ‘very low.’ I suggest he tell that to the 30,000 women across the country who give birth as a result of rape each year.

“After receiving heavy public condemnation, Republicans introduced an exception for victims of rape. This is too little, too late. We cannot allow the conversation we have about reproductive health to be driven by men who so easily dismiss victims of rape. The women and men of this country are watching this debate. Last-minute fig leaves aren’t going to cut it.

“Despite their endless promises to the contrary, Republicans won’t focus on job creation. The House has now voted 37 times to repeal Obamacare, which prevents insurance companies from charging women more for the same coverage they offer men. Now we’re voting on a bill to restrict women’s rights to make health care decisions. Where are the jobs?

“It’s time to stop hurting America’s women and put people back to work.”

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