How the GOP Botched Its Response to Limbaugh’s Comments

Republicans back away from Limbaugh's comments.

Yeah, there’s no “that’s completely disgusting” anywhere in that statement.

On Sunday’s Meet the Press, Gingrich did everything he could not to speak Limbaugh’s name is his weak repudiation:

Transcript of Gingrich's comments:

GINGRICH: “I think it was appropriate for (Rush Limbaugh) to apologize. I’m glad he apologized. Do you think the president owes all the men and women in uniform who he frankly abandoned when he apologized to religious fanatics in Afghanistan?

(DAVID) GREGORY: “Can you appreciate the view of those who disagree with you that this is an attack on women’s rights?”

GINGRICH: “Nobody is blocking anyone from having access to contraception. No one. The young lady who testified can get access to contraception. Nobody said she couldn’t. The question is, should a Catholic institution or, for that matter, the Ohio Christian University, which is…a very pro-life institution, which is now being told it will have to pay for birth control pills…be dictated to by politicians in Washington…”

And Santorum, with perhaps the most appropriate of the statements, told CNN last Friday that Limbaugh was “being absurd!"

"But that's, you know -- an entertainer can be absurd," Santorum said.

Most telling about the party’s lackluster response is the immediate right turn to continue perpetuating a falsehood; that women who seek contraception, in its varying forms, are “loose” God-less hussies, who want the taxpayers to fund their sex lives.

That virtually all of the candidates have neglected to acknowledge women use birth control for reasons other than preventing pregnancy, speaks to a general ignorance and latent misogyny. Those traits either linger in the Republican Party was a whole or has just quarantined itself to the uninspiring presidential field.

On all fronts, the GOP is losing big with women, with Independents and with men who thank God everyday that their girlfriends and wives take birth control religiously.